Knowledge, attitudes and practices about physical restraints in caregivers of geriatric centers in the city of Cuenca

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The use of physical restraints as a means aimed for partial or general immobilization, in a patient who requires it to try to guarantee his or others safety, in hospitals and long-term residences, has been widely documented and discussed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices about the use of physical restraints of caregivers in geriatric centers in the city of Cuenca, during 2018. METHODS: Descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study in which a survey was applied to 60 caregivers of older adults from 6 geriatric centers in the city of Cuenca-Ecuador. The questionnaire we used, prepared by Suen KPL, evaluated the knowledge, attitudes and practices of caregivers regarding the use of physical restraints. Data was tabulated with SPSS version 22.0 software, percentages and frequencies were calculated; we used Fisher`s exact test searching for statistical association between the relevant variables. RESULTS: 75% of the caregivers in the study population were in a range of 20 to 39 years of age. Of all the participants, 90% were nursing assistants. Regarding knowledge, 66.7% of the participants had intermediate knowledge; only 10% had high knowledge. 83.3% of the participants had negative attitudes regarding physical restraints. Most of the population (68.3%) had very satisfactory practices. CONCLUSION: The caregivers of older adults in the geriatric centers studied in the city of Cuenca are mostly nursing assistants. There is a knowledge deficit in 23.3% of all caregivers. Most of the caregivers presented negative attitudes regarding the use of physical restraints. In relation to the practices, in general, we found a very satisfactory level. With the results obtained, we concluded that there is no significant statistical association between the professional characteristics of the caregivers and the knowledge, attitudes and practices about physical restraints.