Conclusions
The present study found that most staff within a large psychiatric hospital demonstrated awareness of appropriate staff to patient relationships. A minority of respondents did make choices that could be considered as undesirable or inappropriate in relating to patients and often involved boundary issues in personal relationships with patients. Educational factors were found to be particularly significant.
The nature of this research was exploratory, with the purposes of raising staff consciousness and providing information for training. The need for more research in the development of measures relevant to staff to patient relationships cannot be overemphasized.
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The authors are grateful to all staff of Central State Hospital who assisted with this project, and to Robert Hamer, Ph.D. and Al Best, Ph.D. both of whom assisted with data analysis.
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Elliott, R.L., Wolber, G. & Ferriss, W. A survey of hospital staff attitudes toward ethically problematic relationships with patients. Adm Policy Ment Health 24, 443–449 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02042726
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02042726