Restrictive practice: when simple acts may breach patient rights

Advice for nurses on the law regarding practices that limit patients’ activities, including when they may unintentionally infringe on human rights

• Restrictive practices should only be used if there is a risk of harm, but seemingly innocuous measures are sometimes used routinely in understaffed or pressured settings
• Nurses in all specialties should have more training in the correct use of restrictive interventions, experts say
• Advice about legal implications and an overview of the Three Steps to Positive Practice framework on considering the use of restrictions

Nurses could be unwittingly breaching patients’ human rights by imposing rules on them in pressured healthcare settings, experts suggest.