A violence prevention program's impact on nurses' confidence in managing patient aggression.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare quality improvement
• Nursing safety
• Evidence-based practice in healthcare

Background:

• Workplace violence (WPV), especially patient-on-worker aggression, is an increasing concern in acute care hospitals.
• Complex patient populations and workforce changes exacerbate risks to nursing and patient safety.
• Existing WPV training lacked a standardized, bundled approach with patient risk assessment for inpatient settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate a bundled WPV prevention education program for inpatient nurses.
• To introduce a standardized patient violence risk assessment tool for interdisciplinary communication and care coordination.
• To enhance nurses' confidence in managing patient aggression.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement project utilizing the Iowa Model Revised for Evidence-Based Practice.
• The Clinician Confidence in Coping with Patient Aggression (CCPA) survey was administered pre- and postintervention.
• A bundled WPV education strategy was implemented, incorporating a patient violence risk assessment tool.

Main Results:

• Nurses reported a statistically significant increase in confidence when dealing with patient aggression postintervention (P < .05).
• The bundled education and risk assessment tool demonstrated positive impact on nurses' self-efficacy.

Conclusions:

• A bundled WPV prevention education program, inclusive of an evidence-based risk assessment tool, is a valuable enhancement to standard nursing education.
• Implementing such a strategy can improve nurses' confidence and potentially mitigate risks associated with workplace violence in hospitals.