Developing Clinical Practice Guidelines for violence risk assessment at triage

Abstract

violence. The specialities of emergency, aged care and mental health nursing have reported the highest occurrence of violence, with a very high percentage of nurses being subjected to verbal abuse. As the first point of contact for the majority of patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED), triage nurses have been identified as a high risk group among emergency nurses for verbal and physical violence and often bear the brunt of patient frustrations. This study explored the experience of six triage nurses in relation to patient-related workplace violence. The study site was a regional tertiary referral hospital in New South Wales, Australia. A qualitative descriptive methodology was used, and data were collected from the six participants using semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the transcribed interviews uncovered a number of common themes which were discussed in view of the current literature on the topic. The participants all reported negative experiences of patient related violence that were perceived as inevitable and increasing in intensity and frequency. Themes included identification of precipitating factors such as long waiting times and alcohol and substance misuse; lack of aggression minimisation training; lack of formal debriefing following episodes of violence and frustration at lengthy reporting methods that were considered to be not ‘user-friendly’.