ArticleBJPsych bulletin2019
Against the stream: intermittent nurse observations of in-patients at night serve no purpose and cause sleep deprivation.
Article in BJPsych bulletin, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Development and evaluation of a personalised sleep care plan on child and adolescent in-patient mental health wards.BJPsych bulletin · 2025Article
- Distinguishing sleep from wake with a radar sensor: a contact-free real-time sleep monitor.Sleep · 2021Article
- Feasibility and utility of enhanced sleep management on in-patient psychiatry wards.BJPsych bulletin · 2020Article
- Introducing artificial intelligence in acute psychiatric inpatient care: qualitative study of its use to conduct nursing observations.Evidence-based mental health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This paper argues that intermittent nursing observations of in-patients at night do not reduce the risk of suicide or severe self-harm. Suicides between 23.00 h and 07.00 h are rare, and these overwhelmingly occur under intermittent observations. Such observation is purely a defensive intervention to document that a patient is safe at a particular time, as there is no engagement. For the large majority of in-patients, it has the unintended consequence of causing sleep deprivation. The intervention may cause harm to in-patients by making their disorder worse and increase their risk during the day. If patients are judged to be at immediate risk, then they should be placed on constant observation. If they are not, then optimising sleep is important for treating a psychiatric disorder and they should be placed on general observations.Declaration of interestNone.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.