Characteristics of effective nursing interventions in the management of challenging behaviour

A combination of semi-structured interviews and participant observation were used in order to investigate the interventions used by psychiatric nurses when faced with challenging behaviour. The study described 10 such categories of effective interventions: confirming messages, personal control, staff honesty, providing face-saving alternatives, setting limits, use of structure, facilitating expression, monitoring, timing and calming, and non-verbal skills. The report concludes by suggesting that these categories can be used to provide a structure for the analysis of critical incidents from a nursing perspective.