New Toolkit Will Help Emergency Departments Prevent and Mitigate Violence Against Staff
February 16, 2011—Violence in hospital emergency departments is a well-documented and serious problem. The majority of emergency department nurses have experienced some form of verbal or physical abuse at the hands of a patient or a patient’s friend or relative at some point in their careers. A study by the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) found that more than half of emergency nurses surveyed reported experiencing such abuse within the last seven days. Of more concern is the finding that in almost half of the cases of physical violence, nurses reported that no action was taken against the perpetrator, and in three out of four cases, hospitals did not respond to nurses’ reports of violence.
To help hospital emergency departments prevent and respond to violence, ENA today released the ENA Workplace Violence Toolkit at the association’s Leadership Conference in Portland, Oregon.
This groundbreaking online resource provides guidance on developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to managing violent behaviors in the emergency department and protecting staff and patients. It includes resources to help emergency department managers and team leaders:
- Understand the issue of emergency department workplace violence;
- Evaluate their emergency department’s current status;
- Describe their goals for preventing violence;
- Design an action plan; and
- Evaluate that plan and plot out next steps.
Those resources include:
- Assessment tools;
- Research articles and summaries;
- Sample policies and procedures;
- Staff education materials;
- Sample correspondence for communicating with hospital management and staff;
- Sample policies and procedures;
- Project plans complete with worksheets, outcomes and action items; and
- Sample occurrence reports and data collection tools.
“Research has shown that hospitals that have policies and plans for addressing workplace violence have lower rates of violence than hospitals that don’t,” said ENA President AnnMarie Papa, DNP, RN, CEN, NE-BC, FAEN. “Hospitals with policies are far safer for the health care professionals working in them and for the patients they care for. We have a responsibility to our colleagues and our patients to make our hospitals – and our emergency departments – as safe as possible. I strongly urge all emergency department managers and hospital administrators to download and use this invaluable, important and free resource.”
The ENA Workplace Violence Toolkit is available at http://www.ena.org/IENR/ViolenceToolKit/Documents/toolkitpg1.htm.
About ENA
The Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) is the only professional nursing association dedicated to defining the future of emergency nursing and emergency care through advocacy, expertise, innovation, and leadership. Founded in 1970, ENA serves as the voice of more than 37,000 members and their patients through research, publications, professional development, injury prevention, and patient education. Additional information is available at www.ena.org.