Community Health Nursing
Introduction
There are a number of challenges that healthcare staff has to deal with, and one is violence. Nurses are normally on the receiving end of this. Nurses face a lot of violence when they are undergoing their work, and it is therefore important that there is an intervention that will help in solving this problem to allow for them to be able to conduct their tasks properly. This will, in return, a transition to better health care outcomes.
Picot Question
Picot Question: Will the introduction of a Zero-tolerance code on violence in the emergency department, reduce the violence that nurses face in six months as opposed to having no code in place?
P- the population, in this case, is the people in the emergency wards. This includes the patients, their visitors, and nurses.
I- the intervention is the introduction of a Zero-tolerance code on violence.
C- comparison will entail a look at the impact of the zero-tolerance code and a period when there is no code.
O- the desired outcome is that the rate of violence that nurses face will reduce.
T- The time required for the observation is six months.
Research Critiques
- Qualitative Articles
Gates et al. 2011 also address the issue of violence towards nurses in healthcare and the impact that has both productivity and stress. Workplace violence is one of the major problems that the healthcare sector is facing. Nurses are normally affected by this problem since they encounter a lot of patients on a daily basis, who, in some cases, end up becoming violent. A study was conducted in a randomized sample of 3000 nurses showed that violence has a negative impact on nurses. It leads to psychological effects.
Griffin 2004, looks at the kind of violence that nurses face at their workplace. Newly licensed nurses are more at a risk of facing violence than older nurses. The author identifies cognitive rehearsal as an intervention that is used to deal with the violence. Cognitive rehearsal is an applied cognitive-behavioral technique.
McPhaul and Lipscomb, 2004, talks about workplace violence in healthcare. The authors note that workplace violence is one of the major occupational hazards in healthcare, and there is a need for interventions. The main problem in that the nurses normally have little violence over the amount of violence that they face. According to the author, one of the reasons why violence happens can be attributed to the broken window theory. The authors suggest that OSHA guidelines can be used to prevent violence. Other suggestions are management commitment and employee involvement, worksite assessment, and hazard prevention and control.
Another article under critique is that authored by Nui et al., 2019. The article looks at the violence that nurses undergo in acute psychiatric settings. The clinical problem that led to the study is the increased numbers of violence that the nurses were facing. The author established the significance of the study by conducting a study on 429 nurses. The nurses then shared the experiences that they had. The purpose of the study was to find out how violence impacts nurses and how that affected their work. Some of the questions that the study sort of answering are; what is the impact of violence on nurses? And what are the possible interventions that can be used to curb the violence?
The article by Shafran-Tikva et al. 2017, sort to understand the types of violence that nurses undergo as well as another physician. This article is crucial since it expounds on the problem of violence in healthcare by looking at all the possible violence that can arise. The authors used other published studies to make their case. The purpose of this study was to find out the types of violence that are faced by nurses and other physicians. Some of the questions that the study sought to answer include: what is the type of violence that nurses and physicians face? Who are the perpetrators? And which hospital departments are most prone to violence?
The article that best supports the nursing intervention
The first article by Nui et al., 2019, is very relevant when it comes to this topic. This is because the article addressed the same problem that has been addressed by the Picot question, and that is violence that the nurses face. The article is crucial because it goes further to explain the impact that the violence on nurses has on their jobs. Some of the negative impacts that have been cited by the authors include; compromised healthcare, low work morale, and high rate of turnover. The article is also relevant because it focused solely on nurses giving better information and more detailed information. The authors also make a suggestion of some of the steps that should be taken to reduce violence. This includes; putting in place security measures, training, and having patient protocol.
Nurses should be undergoing continuous training on how to deal with any challenges that they face. This includes violence. They should also be offered therapeutic help, which will help them to better deal with the challenge. All the incidences of violence, regardless of how small they are ought to be reported. This will make it easy to monitor and be able to understand things such as why the violence is coming up and the best way to address them. The same intervention as that in the Picot question is in the article. The authors also make a suggestion of having a patient protocol in place. This will help to make sure that the nurses are no longer facing as much violence from the patients as they used to.
Conclusion
Violence in healthcare is one of the common challenges that nurses and other physicians are facing. It is, therefore, crucial to find an intervention that will help in solving the challenge. This will help the nurses to be able to give it their all, which will result in improved delivery. The rate of turnover will reduce, and the nurses will be motivated to work. Putting in place a zero-tolerance code on violence will make the patients and their visitors aware that no kind of violence towards the nurses is allowed.
References
Gates, D. M., Gillespie, G. L., & Succop, P. (2011). Violence against nurses and its impact on stress and productivity. Nurs Econ, 29(2), 59-66.
Griffin, M. (2004). Teaching cognitive rehearsal as a shield for lateral violence: An intervention for newly licensed nurses. The journal of continuing education in nursing, 35(6), 257-263.
McPhaul, K. M., & Lipscomb, J. A. (2004). Workplace violence in health care: recognized but not regulated. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 9(3), 7.
Niu, S.-F., Kuo, S.-F., Tsai, H.-T., Kao, C.-C., Traynor, V., & Chou, K.-R. (2019). Prevalence of workplace violent episodes experienced by nurses in acute psychiatric settings. PLOS ONE, 14(1), e0211183. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0211183
Shafran-Tikva, S., Zelker, R., Stern, Z., & Chinitz, D. (2017). Workplace violence in a tertiary care Israeli hospital – a systematic analysis of the types of violence, the perpetrators and hospital departments. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 6(1). doi:10.1186/s13584-017-0168-x