Violence in the Emergency Department: Tools & Strategies to Create a Violence-Free ED

by Patricia Allen MBA, BS, RN

Overview

"This book is a must for all emergency departments and a valuable resource for anyone scheduled to work there. It covers the history and evolution of violence in emergency departments and offers excellent exhibits for quick reference..."

--Doody's

Violence in the emergency department (ED) is a critical, even life-threatening problem facing ED nurses and physicians daily. Emergency room personnel have repeatedly reported being threatened, harassed, and seriously injured by hostile patients, including psychiatrically ill patients, substance abusers, and criminals, as well as by patients' families and friends. During this nursing shortage, it is imperative that hospital administrators take the necessary measures to create a violence-free emergency room.

This book educates health care professionals and hospital administrators about all aspects of ED violence. The author provides all the essential tools and strategies for preventing violence before it starts, and managing it if it occurs. In this book, Allen provides practical guidelines for assessing the potential risk of violence in the ED and implementing a violence defense strategy and program.

Key topics discussed:

• How to assess the potential risk of violence in individual patients
• How to identify the types of patients that are most likely to be violent in the ED and why they are violent
• How to plan and implement a violence defense program by increasing security, charging penalties and fines, announcing hospital-wide alerts, and more
• How to improve communication strategies with both colleagues and violent patients in the ED
• How to increase awareness of the the significant problem of lateral violence among healthcare personnel

Violence in the Emergency Department will not only help safeguard physicians and nurses from injury, it will serve as one more step toward healing the critical nursing shortage, increasing job satisfaction, and improving patient care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826110602
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	07/13/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Patricia B. “Nikki” Allen, MBA, BS, RN, has spent her entire career in diverse areas of health care management. She has created a violence prevention plan including violence prevention tools to help the multiple Emergency Departments (EDs) with which she has been involved.

Read an Excerpt

chapter

Table of Contents

PART I: THE EMERGENCE OF VIOLENCE INSOCIETY AND HEALTH CARE SETTINGS
1 The Sociology of American Violence
2 The Evolution of Health Care Delivery: Setting theStage for Violence in the ED
3 Why Are EDs Targets for Violence?
4 The Cost of ED Violence
5 Creating the ED as a Safe Haven
PART II: ASSESSING VIOLENCE IN THE ED: THEVICTIMS AND THE PERPETRATORS
6 Assessment of Your ED: Identifying Your EDRisk for Violence
7 Assessment of Your ED Patients: Recognizing
Your Patients as Victims of Violence
PART III: INTERVENTION IN THE ED: TOOLS AND STRATEGIESFOR A VIOLENCE-FREE ED
8 Initiating Change for ED Violence Prevention
9 Communication Strategies: Intra-Institutional
10 Community Communication Strategies
PART IV: OUTCOMES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
11 The Benefi ts of Implementing Violence Prevention Strategies
12 Future Directions
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Recommended Web Sites for Violence Reduction Resources
Appendix B: Recommended Policies for Emergency Department ViolenceReduction
Appendix C: American College of Emergency Physicians: Emergency Department
Crowding and Boarding Strategies White Paper: Short-Term Solutions/ModelPractices
Appendix D: The American College of Emergency Physicians: The NationalReport Card on the State of Emergency Medicine

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Anna L. Jarrett, PhD, ACNP, FNP - BC(University of Arkansas)
Description: This book is a must for all emergency departments and a valuable resource for anyone scheduled to work there. It covers the history and evolution of violence in emergency departments and offers excellent exhibits for quick reference, i.e., general guidelines for communication and personal safety when assessing or treating potentially violent patients.
Purpose: The purpose is well stated in the preface, which notes there is scant information about the topic of emergency department violence. This book pulls together social work, psychology, nursing, and management tools to assist emergency department personnel. It does a fine job addressing the objectives.
Audience: The book is written for anyone who works in any role in any emergency department.
Features: Topics include the history and evolution of violence in our society and in emergency departments, reasons why emergency departments are targets, and plans to make emergency departments safe havens for all. The case study adds to the understanding of each section. I found the best part to be the discussion of the HITS (Hurt-Insult-Threaten-Scream) instrument to screen for intimate partner violence (IPV). The cost of violence is also covered, which is unique to this book. Although not a shortcoming, the gang violence discussion could have been a chapter in itself.
Assessment: This is a must-have reference for all emergency departments.

Doody's Review Service