Boredom among psychiatric in-patients: does it matter?

This critical litera ture review on boredom arose out of a pilot clinical librarian/informationist project in Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) NHS Foundation Trust. At the time of writing, the lead author (R.S.) was clinical librarian/informationist for four pilot teams in the trust. One of these teams includes a consultant psychiatrist (P.H.), a modern matron (D.S.) and an occupational therapist (F.L.) in an adult acute in-patient service. The consultant psychiatrist suggested that R.S. consult the research evidence base to illuminate in-patients’ reports of ‘boredom’. The body of this article, including the conclusions, has been written by R.S., with commentaries by P.H., F.L. and D.S.