To screen or not to screen for suicide? Opinions of adolescent medical inpatients and the nurses who treat them

Introduction: Substantial evidence suggesting that medical inpatients, especially children and adolescents, are at increased risk for suicide (Furnetto & Stefanello, 2011; Qin et al, 2012) Early detection of patients at risk is a critical prevention strategy. Although results of previous studies indicate that the majority of pediatric patients support universal screening for suicide in the Emergency Department (e.g., Ballard et al, 2013), research to date has not investigated opinions of medical inpatients or of the nurses who treat them.   In this presentation, the authors will present qualitative and quantitative data related to both nursing opinions and patient opinions about suicide screening. 

Methods: Patient data was collected as part of a multisite suicide screening instrument validation study.  200 medical inpatients ages 10-21 participated and answered the question: “Do you think nurses should ask about kids about suicide while they are in the hospital?  Why or why not?”  Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006). A survey of nurses who treated this patient population is underway.  Survey questions include opinions about universal screening, potential barriers, and burden. 

Findings: 87.5% of the sample supported universal screening by nurses who treat patients on hospital medical floors.  Salient themes included prevention, safety, and the critical importance of nurses.  Findings from the nursing survey will be reported.

Conclusions.  Universal suicide screening by nurses is acceptable to this adolescent medical inpatient population.  Taken together with nursing opinions, these findings will inform setting-based implementation strategies for addressing the public health issue of adolescent suicide.