Exploring the attitudes of the nursing staff towards the use of body worn cameras in psychiatric inpatient wards

Abstract

Introduction: Body worn cameras (BWCs) are recording devices that could be used as a tool to record interactions between staff and patients on psychiatric inpatient wards. Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes of psychiatric nursing staff towards the use of BWCs on psychiatric inpatient wards. Method: A survey questionnaire was distributed to seven inpatient wards in one Mental Health Trust in South West London. Wards included the psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU), two acute wards and four secure wards. Results: From an initial pool of 140 potential respondents, 60 participants returned the completed survey (response rate = 42.9%). For all 10 Likert-scale questions, the median ranged from 3.0 ('neutral') to 4.0 ('agree'). The majority of nursing staff at Springfield University Hospital either agreed or felt neutral towards the use of BWCs on psychiatric inpatient wards. There was no statistically significant difference between the responses of nursing staff who had previously been subjected to verbal/physical abuse and nursing staff who had not. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the majority of nursing staff were either supportive of or neutral towards the use of BWCs on psychiatric inpatient wards. Further research is necessary to determine whether other mental healthcare professions and patients share the same opinion.