Mental health nurses' dispositional decision-making for people presenting to the emergency department with deliberate self-harm: an exploratory study.

BACKGROUND

There is no clear treatment pathway for people presenting to Australian emergency departments with deliberate self-harm.

PURPOSE

To explore variations in mental health nurses' disposition decisions for patients following risk assessment for deliberate self-harm.

DESIGN AND METHOD

A survey was distributed to mental health nurses. This survey comprised demographic items and questions in response to nine vignettes describing episodes of deliberate self-harm. Dispositional decision and reasoning were also sought for each vignette.

FINDINGS

Poor levels of agreement for disposition were found.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

There was a lack of consensus regarding dispositional outcomes. This suggests a high level of subjectivity in decision-making which needs to be taken into account within clinical governance.