Irene Ortiz-Sandoval

Aim: To create and analyze an instrument to assess the possible agitation triggers of hospitalized psychiatric patients. Background: No tools exist for identifying according to a professional’s experience. Methods: Descriptive and cross-sectional study. The questionnaire of possible triggers of agitation behaviors of patients hospitalized in psychiatric wards according to professional experience (TAPE) was designed and analyzed. Results: The questionnaire was provided to 156 mental health workers (76.9% women, average work experience: 10.15 ± 8 years, 46.8% were nurses specialized in mental health, and 21.2% psychiatrists). A good internal consistency was obtained, with a Cronbach α value of 0.791 in the initial test, and 0.892 in the retest. The factorial analysis found four factors: factor 1 “personnel”, factor 2 “routines”, factor 3 “norms–infrastructure”, and factor 4 “clinic”. Factor 1 obtained the highest value, with a mean of 4.16 ± 0.63, highlighting the item “lack of specialized personnel” (mean 4.38 ± 0.81). The specialized professionals provided higher scores to the items from the factors associated with the training of the personnel and routines (p = 0.017; p = 0.042). Conclusions: The TAPE questionnaire is useful for identifying the possible triggers that could lead to situations of agitation of hospitalized patients.