What should researchers do if they encounter a study participant who reports suicidal thoughts?
UIC College of Nursing associate professor Susan Dunn explores this question as lead author of Suicide Risk Management Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial of Cardiac Patients Reporting Hopelessness, a paper published in the January/February edition of
Nursing Research.
Suicide is ranked as the 10th leading cause of death for all ages in the U.S. and can be identified through clinical research, according to the paper.
Although suicide screening tools are widely available for patients in emergency, hospital and primary care settings and have been used in research, there is a significant gap in the availability of published suicide risk management protocols for use in research studies, the authors wrote.