Annotated Bibliography: The Use Assessments to Identify Suicidal Patients in a Healthcare Setting

Aflague, J.M., & Ferszt, G.G. (2010). Suicide assessment by psychiatric nurses: A phenomenographic study. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 31, 248-256. doi:10.3109/01612840903267612

This research attempted to determine the current suicide assessment techniques that are used by nurses. The study posed two research questions: 1) What conceptualizations of suicide are held by psychiatric nurses?, and 2) What strategies do psychiatric nurses employ when conducting a suicide assessment? The study assesses these questions by examining a relationship between an independent and dependent variable. The independent variable in the study is the suicide assessment that the study participants performed on patients, and the dependent variable is the responses that the participants provide to the content in the plan. The independent variable is measured through the researchers’ documentation of the suicide evaluations. Measurement dependent variables are obtained qualitatively, through interviews and audio recordings.

The reason that the researchers conducted this study was that there was a lack of current research on the role of nurses in assessing suicide risk. The researchers noted that the primary reason suicide attempts occur in a healthcare setting is because risk assessments are often inadequate (p. 248). Thus, the nurse’s role in suicide prevention is an important role to consider. Further, the researchers asserted that utilizing a phenomenographic study would reveal the thought processes of the nurses and would increase understanding of the manners in which nurses assess suicide risk. Evaluating the perception that nurses have when assessing suicide would hold significance for professionals who develop risk assessments for medical practitioners.

This research utilizes a qualitative design. The population studied includes a sample of six psychiatric mental health nurses who practice in both psychiatric hospitals and the psychiatric unit of general hospitals. The sample includes give females and one male, and give of the participants had over fifteen years of experience in their profession. The researchers observed the nurses performing suicide assessments on adult patients and then conducted interviews following the suicide assessments to question the nurses on the strategies they used during the assessments. The intent of the study was to determine which risk factors the nurses found to be most relevant and what perspectives they held on suicide risk assessments in general.

Sun, F., Long, A., Huang, X., & Chiang, C. (2011). A quasi-experimental investigation into the efficacy of a suicide education programme for second-year student nurses in Taiwan. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20, 837-846. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03503.x

This research evaluate how a suicide education program for second-year Taiwan nursing students impacted student awareness on and sympathy to the needs of suicidal patients. The study attempted to answer one primary research question: would attending a suicide education program increase a students’ sensitivity towards caring for suicidal patients? The independent variable in the study was the suicide awareness education program, and the dependent variable was the students’ attitudes regarding mentally ill patients. The dependent variable, the attitudes that the students held regarding suicidal patients, was measured through a questionnaire that assessed their knowledge of and sympathies towards issues involving suicidal patients.

The reason this study was conducted was because research demonstrated that the attitude that nurses hold impact their ability to detect and monitor suicidal patients (p. 837). Yet, there are few studies that address how education plays a role in helping nurses provide better care for suicidal patients (p. 837). The research is a quasi-experiment design that utilizes a randomized controlled study to determine the effect of suicide education on student attitudes. The sample group consisted of 174 second-year nursing students who were divided into two groups. One group was exposed to the suicide education program, and the control group was not exposed to the program. After the education program was completed, both groups were given a survey on their attitudes and knowledge of issues surrounding patient suicide. The study compares the results between the two groups to determine whether attending the program had an effect on the attitudes conveyed by the group of nursing students who attended the program. The findings from this research assess the role that education plays in preparing nurses to properly assess and care for suicidal patients.

Taur, F., Chai, S., Chen, M., Hou, J., Lin, S., & Tsai, S. (2012). Evaluating the suicide risk-screening scale used by general nurses on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer: A questionnaire survey. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21, 398-407. Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03808.x

The purpose of this research was to determine the efficacy of the use of interviews in suicide assessments for hospitalized patients. As the researchers discussed, there are several suicide assessment scales that are in use by nurses in general wards, including the Nurses’s Global Assessment of Suicide Risk, the Suicide Assessment Scale, the High-Risk Construct Scale, the Multi-attitude Suicide Tendency Scale, and the Assessment of Risk for Suicide (p. 399). However, a problem with many scales is that their reliance on patient input causes suicide ideation to be underreported (p. 400). The study addresses one primary research question: which clinical screening scale is the best measure of suicide risk in patients? The independent variable in this study is the type of suicide screening scale used by the participants, and the dependent variable is the scale results that the participants recorded. The measurements for both the independent and dependent variables were obtained from the different scales that were used to assess suicidal risk in patients.

The study participants included fifty-four general nurses and 232 patients with either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or lung cancer. The nurses were trained to use a customized screening application for suicide to be used on the patients. In addition, the researchers developed two metrics assessing the symptoms of distress and the repulsion of life in order to obtain an independent probability of suicide risk. Further, the patients assessed their own conditions through self-rating after their assessments were complete. The data collected by the nurses utilizing their suicide risk assessments were then compared to the researcher’s figures and the patient’s self-ratings in order to assess whether the assessments used by the nurses under or over reported symptoms of suicide.

The reason the researchers conducted this research was to determine whether scales were effective in compensating for underreporting by patients. The researchers intended for these findings to be used to develop more accurate suicide risk assessment scales in clinical practices. This research was a correlative study that utilized statistical analysis of the research data to determine the correlations between suicide risk, suicide tendency, and symptom distress. Further, the study evaluates the correlation between the type of scale that is used to assess suicide and the level of risk assessed.