Cutcliffe, J.R. & Barker, P.

Cost to use

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Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario
158 Pearl St.
Toronto, Ont.
M5H-1L3
Phone number:(416) 599-1925 or toll free 1-800-268-7199
Fax:(416) 599-1926

No copy available from the Knowledge Institute. Contact author or publisher.

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2004

Original

Primary: Suicide, self-harm
Secondary: None identified

Hopelessness, stress, depression, interpersonal and social interactions, bereavement or relationship breakdown, socioeconomic status, physical health

Measure was designed to provide a guide to entry level nurses and health care stuff to assess evidence-based risk factors of suicide. Once risk has been determined, the measure provides a guidance on the level of engagement required following admission of the measure.

Measure can be used in health care facilities and emergency rooms to help determine an individual's level of suicide risk and determine the appropriate level of engagement required with the presenting individual. Measure is NOT a diagnostic tool and is expected to be used in conjunction with clinical judgment.

Adults

Clinical interview

Heath care professionals

15

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Presence or absence of each item

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Measure was designed to be able to used by entry-level staff in health care facilities

Five items have a weighting of 3, indicating critical indicators of suicide risk. The remaining 10 items have a weighting of 1. Items are summed to yield a total score. There are four categories of scores: low level risk (5 or less), intermediate level risk (6-8), high level risk (9-11), and very high level risk (12 or more). Higher scores indicate more intensive engagement is required with the individual being assessed.

One study reported a Cronbach’s alpha of .45 for the total NGASR, indicating poor internal consistency. For each subscale, alphas were reported as follows: Suicidal mood = .68; Severe mental illness = .42, Proneness to suicidal behaviour’ = .30; and 'Recent stress’ = .37. Inter-rater reliability was high for the full scale (.92), and ranged from .80 to .96 for each individual subscale. See van Veen et al., (2015) for more details.

Others have reported an internal consistency alpha of a Dutch version of the measure as .42 (see Veen, 2010 for more details)

Authors report evidence of face and content validity. van Veen et al. (2015) found evidence of moderately strong concurrent validity between total NGASR score and the Suicide Intent Scale (SIS).

Cost to use

Information not indicated / not available at this time

Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario
158 Pearl St.
Toronto, Ont.
M5H-1L3
Phone number:(416) 599-1925 or toll free 1-800-268-7199
Fax:(416) 599-1926

None at this time

Cutcliffe, J. R., & Barker, P. (2004). The Nurses' Global Assessment of Suicide Risk (NGASR): Developing a tool for clinical practice. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 11(4), 393-400.

Mitchell, A. M. P., Garand, L., Dean, D., Panzak, G., & Taylor, M. (2005). Suicide Assessment in Hospital Emergency Departments: Implications for Patient Satisfaction and Compliance. Topics in Emergency Medicine Patient Satisfaction in the Emergency Department., 27(4), 302-312.

Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO). (2009). Assessment and care of adults at risk for suicidal ideation and behavior. Toronto, ON: Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO).

van Veen, M., van Weeghel, I., Koekkoek, B., & Braam, A. W. (2015). Structured assessment of suicide risk in a psychiatric emergency service: Psychometric evaluation of the Nurses’ Global Assessment of Suicide Risk scale (NGASR). International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 61(3), 287-296.

Veen, M. v. (2010). Psychometric properties of the Dutch Nurses' Global Assessment of Suicide Risk Scale (NGASR). Retrieved March 26, 2014 from http://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/178922.