Introduction
Restraint and seclusion are considered some of the more inhumane practices in modern medicine. The presented evidence-based project is designed to address this issue by reducing the instances of restraint and seclusion in hospitals through higher quality of care being provided to the patients, patient-focused interventions, and even introduction of new national policy for the regulation of this medical practice. The evaluation of this project requires the collection of various independent and dependent variables. This paper will provide an overview of these variables and why they need to be collected.
Independent Variable
The variable which would be the most independent is the legislative action on the part of the government. While it may be proposed to local political representatives, the success or failure of these proposed regulations is almost completely unrelated to the project managers, hospital staff, and even patient outcomes. This variable is controlled by the politicians that agree to support it, and it may not be affected by the outside. Nevertheless, this variable is extremely important as it may be the most effective measure in reducing the incidences of restraint and seclusion in hospitals. This is why information on it should be collected throughout its development.
Dependent Variables
Aside from the legislative action, the majority of the remaining variables are directly dependent on the project. The first is the amount of time that hospital staff dedicates to the needs of the patient. This variable is dependent on the actions of nurses, physicians, and other staff members and is related to one of the core elements of the evidence-based project. The examined studies show that incidences of restraint and seclusion are most often used when a patient is reacting negatively to the lack of attention to their needs (Carlson & Hall, 2014; Masters, 2017). This is not the only element that forces the staff to restrain the patient, but it is one of the core reasons for such situations. This is why the amount of time needs to be collected because it would show how the increased time affects these incidences.
The second variable is patient outcomes in both groups. This variable is dependent on the improved quality of care provided by the intervention. Since the project involves two separate groups of participants, their variables should be collected separately. The variable of the first group would show the patient outcomes when the intervention is applied, and the second would show the results of the standard method. Afterward, they would be compared to see the difference. The last dependent variable is the number of restraint and seclusion incidences in both groups. The evidence-based project proposes that better quality of care would result in less frequent use of restraint and seclusion. Therefore, to determine the accuracy of this claim, it is important to collect information on all the incidences of this practice in both the standard and the intervention group. As with the patient outcomes, the results would be compared to determine the viability of the intervention.
Conclusion
This evidence project requires attention to a few variables to evaluate it. There is one variable that is completely independent, and three that are reliant on the actions of the staff. The information collected on them would serve to determine the viability of the intervention presented in the project. While the success or failure of the independent variable is out of the hands of hospital staff, the remaining variables are integrally connected to their actions.
References
Carlson, K., & Hall, G. M. (2014). Preventing restraint and seclusion: A multilevel grounded theory analysis. SAGE Open, 1-12.
Masters, K. J. (2017). Physical restraint: A historical review and current practice. Psychiatric Annals, 47(1), 52-55.