Eliminating restraint or knowing the best approach to restraint in your healthcare environment is a complex issue – and new guidelines introduced this year are putting everyone’s knowledge to the test.

That’s why Cubro recently hosted a webinar with healthcare compliance expert, Gillian Robinson, which is now available for nurses, clinical and facilities managers to watch on demand.

It aims to give people confidence to apply the new restraint guidelines and contains lots of example scenarios that nursing staff can relate to. It specifically points out what has changed between the old Health and Disability Sector Standards (2004-2008) and the new Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard which came into force in February 2022.

All hospitals, hospices and aged care facilities will be audited under these new restraint guidelines from 2023 onwards.

It’s important to understand what’s involved as all levels of an organisation (from governance to individual staff) have obligations to meet under the new standard.

Hospice South Canterbury’s Clinical Nurse Manager, Faye Gillies, watched the webinar and found it so helpful that she’s asked all 20 of her permanent nursing staff to now watch it also.

“Everyone was still talking about ‘enablers’ and I was too, but now we are not,” Faye says. “What the Cubro webinar taught me is the terminology has changed. It’s now either a ‘restraint’ or a ‘mobility aid’ and I like that. So I’ve been learning the new terms and a different way to think. I’m updating our policy and assessment forms and not using the word ‘enabler’ at all.”

Other changes include the need to report all restraint instances to the hospice’s governance board, and the fact that if third parties (such as family members) request bed rails be put up, that automatically qualifies as restraint. “That’s very clear in the standards when I re-read them,” Faye says.

Hospice South Canterbury employs nurses with a wide variety of experience and cultural backgrounds, so having several different presenters in the webinar who could explain things in different ways was very helpful. “It’s good having things explained nice and simply. It’s an interesting and interactive watch.”

The new standard reflects the shift towards more person and whānau-centred care. It’s designed to empower people to make decisions about their own care and focusses on achieving greater equity and meeting Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.