Verbal and Social Interactions Between Patients and Nursing Staff on Psychiatric Inpatient Wards – Perceptions and Investigation of the Psychometric Properties of the VSI-IP Questionnaire

The aims of this study were to investigate the psychometric properties and dimensionality of the staff and patient versions of the Verbal and Social Interaction questionnaire for psychiatric inpatient care (VSI-IP) and to describe and compare the perceptions of nursing staff and patients concerning the frequency and importance of verbal and social interactions in this setting. The two groups from psychiatric inpatient settings in Sweden completed the questionnaire. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed separately on the patient and staff versions, and a Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare the perceptions of the patients and the staff. The factor structure of an outpatient version of the questionnaire (VSI-OP) was replicated in the data collected in inpatient settings thus indicating that it could be used for comparisons between settings. We found that the patients rated the frequency of the verbal and social interactions significantly lower than the nursing staff did, which is concerning and possible reasons for this are discussed. Furthermore, the two groups differed greatly in terms of the category 'establishing structure and routines`, which warrants further investigation.