Date of Award

Fall 11-23-2023

Degree Type

Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

School of Nursing

First Advisor

Dr. Jennifer Stewart-Glenn

Abstract

Workplace aggression and violence toward healthcare workers are documented extensively throughout the literature and unfortunately, this behavior has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenges brought on by the pandemic, such as visitor restrictions and short staffing, have only exacerbated patient aggression and violence. Workplace aggression and violence can cause not only psychological or physical injury to nurses and nursing staff, but it also impacts patient care, job satisfaction, absenteeism, and nurse retention. Training programs to improve nurses’ assessment skills to predict aggressive behaviors and de-escalate violent situations can help nurses better predict and manage patient aggression. A behavior management training intervention was created to increase the confidence of nurses and nursing staff when managing aggressive patients or family members. While some literature supports the effectiveness of aggression and de-escalation training programs and communication techniques in increasing nurse confidence to manage aggression, these programs have not been widely studied. The purpose of this DNP project was to develop an evidenced-based management training intervention to educate nursing staff on de-escalation techniques to reduce patient aggression and to assess the influence of this program on nurse confidence in dealing with aggressive patients. The Confidence in Managing Patient Aggression Scale was administered to participants as a pre and post-test in conjunction with behavior management training to assess nurses’ confidence in managing patient aggression. The results of this study support an overall increase in confidence among participants after completing the training intervention.

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