The relationship between nurse characteristics and perceptions of psychotropic medications in residential facilities for the retarded.
Nurse age, sex, and rank predict how much they trust psychotropic meds and who should control them.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Aman et al. (1987) mailed a short survey to 227 nurses in state residential homes for people with intellectual disability.
They asked how much say nurses, doctors, and psychologists should have in starting or stopping psychotropic meds.
The team then looked at which nurse traits—age, sex, job rank—went with stronger views.
What they found
Older, male, higher-ranked nurses thought senior nurses should lead med choices and psychologists should stay out.
Younger, female nurses wanted more blood tests and more non-drug options like behavior plans.
In short, who the nurse is shaped what they thought was safe or right.
How this fits with other research
Matson et al. (1999) asked the same kinds of questions to 334 direct-care staff in group homes. They also found staff felt lost with meds, but now the gap was training, not age or sex.
Rieth et al. (2022) moved from opinions to real life. Their survey showed adults with ID get more behavior meds when they live in stricter settings—echoing the younger nurses’ worry that pills replace choice.
Edwards et al. (2007) surveyed psychiatrists in the same region. Three-quarters said antipsychotics are over-used, matching the younger nurses’ push for fewer drugs. The two studies together show nurses and doctors can agree there is a problem, yet still differ on who should fix it.
Why it matters
If you supervise nurses or write behavior plans, know that veteran nurses may see meds as their turf while newer staff want labs and behavior options. Use this split when you build teams. Pair senior nurses with behavior analysts for joint rounds. Give younger nurses clear lab-monitoring checklists. One 30-minute shared training can turn attitude gaps into a full medication review that cuts risk and keeps behavior plans on track.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A total of 227 nurses were surveyed regarding their attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge about the use of psychotropic drugs. In general, greater age, male sex, status, and higher qualifications tended to covary and were associated with perception of greater involvement by senior nurses in drug-related decisions, more satisfaction with the level of in-service training, awareness of certain side effects, perception of interdisciplinary decision making as a clinical reality, and the view that psychologists were not influential in medication-related decisions. Those without these characteristics (e.g., females, younger nurses) more often advocated greater use of medical and laboratory tests, ongoing training, and alternatives to drugs. Nurses working in nonambulatory units more often saw senior nursing staff as influential in decisions to stop drug treatment and more often recommended that alternatives to pharmacology be employed. Some tentative conclusions about the dynamics surrounding medication use in these facilities were offered to account for these patterns.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1987 · doi:10.1007/BF01486967