Nurses' accounts of locked ward doors: ghosts of the asylum or acute care in the 21st century?

The practice of locking acute ward doors in the UK to manage patient care has been reported with increasing frequency in a number of recent official documents; however, there is little research examining the practice. This study explores the perceptions and experiences of mental health nurses working on acute wards where the doors are locked for all or part of a shift. Audio-taped, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 11 qualified mental health nurses and analysed using content analysis. Six broad categories were identified: policies and documentation, locking and unlocking the doors, communicating the decision, reasons for locking the doors, benefits and concerns. The findings suggest that there is a need for mental health nurses to reflect on the reasons for, and wider implications of locking ward doors before their wholesale implementation is considered in the UK.