Abstract
Introduction
Emergency nurses, physicians, and patients experience occurrences of workplace violence.
Having a team to respond to escalating behavioral events provides a consistent approach
to reducing occurrences of workplace violence and increasing safety. The purpose of
this quality improvement project was to design, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness
of a behavioral emergency response team in an emergency department to reduce occurrences
of workplace violence and increase the perception of safety.
Methods
A quality improvement design was used. The behavioral emergency response team protocol
was created using evidenced-based protocols that have been shown to be effective in
reducing the number of occurrences of workplace violence. Emergency nurses, patient
support technicians, security personnel, and a behavioral assessment and referral
team were trained in the behavioral emergency response team protocol. Data on occurrences
of workplace violence were collected from March 2022 to November 2022. Postbehavioral
emergency response team debriefings were conducted, and real-time education was provided
after implementation. Survey data were collected to evaluate the emergency team members’
perceptions of safety and of the effectiveness of the behavioral emergency response
team protocol. Descriptive statistics were calculated.
Results
The number of reported occurrences of workplace violence decreased by to 0 postimplementation
of the behavioral emergency response team protocol. The perception of safety increased
36.5% postimplementation (mean 2.2 preimplementation, mean 3.0 postimplementation).
In addition, an increase in awareness about reporting occurrences of workplace violence
resulted from education and implementation of the behavioral emergency response team
protocol.
Conclusion
Postimplementation, participants reported an increase in the perception of safety.
Implementation of a behavioral emergency response team was effective in reducing assaults
toward emergency department team members and increasing the perception of safety.
Key words
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Biography
Angela M. Bruccoli is a Director of Emergency Services, Prisma Health Baptist and Baptist Parkridge, Columbia, South Carolina. ENA SC Central Chapter.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 09, 2023
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
