Sexual Abuse Assessment on Admission by Nursing Staff in General Hospital Psychiatric Settings.

OBJECTIVE: Clinicians should have information about patients\u27 sexual abuse history as early as possible, because a history of sexual abuse may affect psychiatric patients\u27 presentation of symptoms and response to treatment. The authors surveyed a nationwide sample of acute inpatient psychiatric facilities to determine whether a history of sexual abuse was completed on admission. METHODS: A survey questionnaire about current practices relating to assessment of patients\u27 history of sexual abuse was sent to nurse managers at every general hospital in the U.S. that offered inpatient psychiatric services (N = 1,410). RESULTS: Although respondents at 69 percent of the 466 facilities that participated in the survey believed that the admission assessment of psychiatric patients should always include a history of sexual abuse, only 43 percent of responding facilities included such histories in the admission assessment. Reasons for not including the history included patients\u27 and staff members\u27 unwillingness to discuss sexual abuse, lack of staff competence in discussing the issue, and duplication of data collection that occurs later in the patient\u27s hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: Nurse managers of inpatient psychiatric services in general hospitals recognize the importance of including an assessment of patients\u27 history of sexual abuse in the admission assessment but report several obstacles to implementing this procedure