Violence in the Emergency Department

"This book is a must for all emergency departments and a valuable resource for anyone scheduled to work there. It covers the history and evolution of violence in emergency departments and offers excellent exhibits for quick reference..."

--Doody's

Violence in the emergency department (ED) is a critical, even life-threatening problem facing ED nurses and physicians daily. Emergency room personnel have repeatedly reported being threatened, harassed, and seriously injured by hostile patients, including psychiatrically ill patients, substance abusers, and criminals, as well as by patients' families and friends. During this nursing shortage, it is imperative that hospital administrators take the necessary measures to create a violence-free emergency room.

This book educates health care professionals and hospital administrators about all aspects of ED violence. The author provides all the essential tools and strategies for preventing violence before it starts, and managing it if it occurs. In this book, Allen provides practical guidelines for assessing the potential risk of violence in the ED and implementing a violence defense strategy and program.

Key topics discussed:

• How to assess the potential risk of violence in individual patients
• How to identify the types of patients that are most likely to be violent in the ED and why they are violent
• How to plan and implement a violence defense program by increasing security, charging penalties and fines, announcing hospital-wide alerts, and more
• How to improve communication strategies with both colleagues and violent patients in the ED
• How to increase awareness of the the significant problem of lateral violence among healthcare personnel

Violence in the Emergency Department will not only help safeguard physicians and nurses from injury, it will serve as one more step toward healing the critical nursing shortage, increasing job satisfaction, and improving patient care.