Suicide Risk Screening in an Emergency Department
- 1 May 2009
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Clinical Nursing Research
- Vol. 18 (3), 253-271
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1054773809335296
Abstract
A study was conducted to detect suicide risk in adolescents and adults seeking treatment in an emergency department (ED) in the Midwest as well as to continue testing reliability and validity of the 4-item Risk of Suicide Questionnaire (RSQ) developed by Horowitz et al. This study included ED staff nurses in a Level II Trauma Center who administered the RSQ to adolescent, adult, and geriatric patients, regardless of chief complaint or psychiatric history. Participants consisted of a convenience sample of 202 patients composed of 59 adolescents and 143 adults, including 36 geriatric patients. Psychometric analysis demonstrated a lower-than-expected degree of reliability and an adequate level of criterion-related validity for the RSQ in this sample. Interrater reliability was established. Approximately 42% of all patients who participated screened positive for suicide risk using the RSQ. Results support screening by nurses as part of the admission assessment to determine suicide risk in patients who present to the ED.Keywords
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- Annual Summary of Vital Statistics: 2005PEDIATRICS, 2007
- Occult suicidality in an emergency department populationThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 2005
- Attendance at the accident and emergency department in the year before suicide: Retrospective studyThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 2003
- School Approaches to Youth Suicide PreventionAmerican Behavioral Scientist, 2003
- Youth Suicide Risk and Preventive Interventions: A Review of the Past 10 YearsJournal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2003
- Risk factors for suicide in later lifeBiological Psychiatry, 2002
- Geriatric mental health: An overviewJournal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 2001
- Detecting Suicide Risk in a Pediatric Emergency Department: Development of a Brief Screening ToolPEDIATRICS, 2001
- Deliberate self-harm patients who leave the accident and emergency department without a psychiatric assessmentJournal of Psychosomatic Research, 2001
- Depression in Geriatric ED Patients: Prevalence and RecognitionAnnals of Emergency Medicine, 1997