Behavior management on an acute brain injury unit: evaluating the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary training...

To measure the effect of behavior management training on restraint use and prn medication delivery on an acute inpatient brain injury unit.

Interdisciplinary staff and hospitalized brain injury patients on a 20-bed unit within a freestanding rehabilitation hospital.

Staff participated in the Nonviolent Crisis Intervention (NCI) program from the Crisis Prevention Institute.

Applied physical restraints and delivered prn medications.

Despite comparable patient levels of agitation severity across the duration of the study, the use of physical restraints initially declined and then increased after training. Data collected on prn medication delivery also indicated a trend for an increase in the delivery of select medication categories across time.

NCI training resulted in a temporary, short-lived reduction in physical restraint use, but had an inverse effect on prn medication delivery for select categories of medication. Medication delivery significantly increased over time and restraint use eventually exceeded baseline level. Ramifications of these results are discussed.