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.
Recommended Citation
Long, Chasity, "Use of Behavior Management Training to Improve Nurses' Confidence in Managing Patient Aggression" (2023). Doctoral Projects. 12.
https://digitalcommons.lmunet.edu/dnpprojects/12