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Aims and objectives: To explore how the physical and social environment of acute mental health units influences consumers' perception and experience of safety. Background: Acute mental health units are places in which consumers should feel safe. Not all consumers, however, feel safe in this environment. Little is known about what contributes to consumers' feelings of safety in this setting. Design: The study used a qualitative descriptive design, influenced by naturalistic enquiry. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and are reported according to the COREQ checklist. Methods: Fifteen people who had experienced admission to an acute mental health unit were individually interviewed. Results: Having a supportive environment enhanced consumers' perception and experience of safety. A supportive environment was experienced when consumers had privacy, felt safe from other consumers and had meaningful activities to participate in within the acute mental health unit. In contrast, having their privacy breached by other consumers made participants feel unsafe. Many participants were fearful of other consumers, and felt unsafe and unable to protect themselves. Lack of meaningful activities led to boredom and contributed to consumers feeling unsafe. Conclusions: Personal spaces should address consumers' privacy needs without compromising staff access. Staff presence enhances consumers' feelings of safety, but this need can be heightened when consumers are unable to alert staff when they feel unsafe. Meaningful activities link consumers to their lives outside of the hospital and can enhance recovery. Relevance to clinical practice: Understanding how the acute unit environment is perceived by consumers can assist nurses and managers to promote feelings of safety among consumers. Feeling safe can, in turn, optimise recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: To explore how nurses influence the perceptions and experience of safety among consumers who have been admitted to an acute mental health unit. Background: Safety is a priority in acute mental health inpatient units, yet consumers do not always experience acute units as safe. Despite being primary stakeholders, little is known about what safety means for consumers in acute mental health units. Design: A qualitative descriptive study informed by naturalistic enquiry was conducted and is reported using the COREQ checklist. Methods: Fifteen consumers with experience of mental illness participated in semi‐structured individual interviews. These interviews explored what safety meant for them during their acute mental health unit admissions. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings: The theme Influence of Nurses reflected that the way nurses engaged in acute mental health units had a profound impact on participants' sense of safety. Three sub‐themes emerged as follows: (a) Availability: "It's about nurses spending time with you"; (b) Being responsive: "They would listen if you had a concern"; and (c) Caring: "Little acts of kindness." Conclusions: These findings challenge the dominant discourse around safety in mental health organisations, in which nursing practice is often oriented towards the management of risk, rather than the promotion of safety. The findings demonstrate that, through their clinical practice, nurses can enhance consumers' feelings of safety in the acute mental health unit. Relevance to clinical practice: Nurses play a key role in providing care within acute mental health units. It is vital that the behaviours and actions nurses can enact in order to promote feelings of safety among consumers in this setting are enabled at individual, unit and organisational levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]