Retrain, Don't Restrain: The Educational Intervention of the National Nursing Home Restraint Removal Project

This article describes an educational program that contributed to a 90% reduction in the use of physical restraints in 16 randomly selected nursing homes over a two-year period. The educational program advocated assessments by a multidisciplinary team to generate individualized, restraint-free interventions. The program consisted of a workshop, telephone and quarterly on-site consultations, regional meetings, a newsletter, and written and audio-visual materials. The workshop and site visits were powerful motivators, and participants also found the video very useful. Most nursing homes can easily adapt components of this project to create their own restraint-removal programs.