Authors (including presenting author) :
Ko H. T. (1), Cheung H. F. (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Psychiatric Department, Kowloon Hospital
Introduction :
Violence prevention is a more effective means to handle violent incidents than coercive measures by reducing the occurrence of violent incidents, enhancing effective communications and resolving patients’ negative emotions. De-escalation refers to the skills and strategies to soothe patients’ emotional outbursts before violent incidents, and debriefing refers to the communication strategies to rebuild rapport after administering coercive measures to patients.
Objectives :
This study examined the effectiveness of a violence prevention training workshop for nurses.
Methodology :
A mixed-method research design was employed. Participants were 17 female nurses (RN = 16 and EN = 1) from two gazette wards, and one informal ward participated in the intervention group. Another 15 female nurses (RN = 12 and EN = 3) participated in the control group. The violence prevention workshop was a 20-minute face-to-face workshop focusing on enhancing nurses’ attitudes, skills, and knowledge in de-escalation and debriefing by developing their violence prevention checklists and discussing practical examples. They were assessed on their attitudes, knowledge, and skills towards de-escalation and debriefing, job satisfaction, and nursing self-efficacy before and after the intervention received the workshop. Moreover, three nurses from the intervention were invited to the individual interviews to share their opinions on the workshop.
Result & Outcome :
The Brunner-Munzel test showed that the intervention group demonstrated significantly larger changes in attitudes and knowledge of de-escalation and nursing efficacy. Participants shared that the workshop successfully enhanced their knowledge of violence prevention. However, more hands-on practice and case studies would be helpful in future workshops. Participants also shared their experiences in implementing de-escalation and debriefing to handle violent incidents. The debriefing could facilitate patients to organise their thoughts and reasons for violent behaviours, which participants believed could reduce the occurrence of future incidents. Moreover, participants shared that they were more likely to handle violent incidents with de-escalation and debriefing before using coercive measures. Participants believed less coercive measures could enhance the rapport between nurses and patients. However, participants also shared that no significant reduction in the severity of violent incidents was observed, notwithstanding the occurrence of violent incidents that appeared to be reduced.
The results suggested that violence prevention training workshops could enhance hospital violence management. Moreover, nurses are open-minded to implement violence prevention strategies instead of coercive measures.
