Publication Date
Spring 3-31-2025
Presentation Length
Poster/Gallery presentation
College
Gordon E. Inman College of Nursing
Department
Nursing, School of
Student Level
Undergraduate
SPARK Category
Research
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Wofford
SPARK Session
Independent Presentation
Presentation Type
Poster
Summary
Workplace violence (WPV) in Emergency Departments (EDs) is a growing issue that affects nurses' safety, mental health, and overall patient care. Nurses frequently face verbal abuse, physical assaults, and threats, with 81.6% reporting at least one violent incident in the past year. ED nurses experience the highest prevalence, leading to increased stress, burnout, and staff turnover, which negatively impacts hospital efficiency and patient outcomes.
Several factors contribute to WPV, including understaffing, inadequate conflict de-escalation training, lack of recognition of potential violence, and underreporting of incidents. Additional challenges include high patient volumes, insufficient security measures, and hospital cultures that discourage reporting violence.
To address WPV, a key recommendation is implementing the Broset Violence Checklist, a tool designed to assess a patient's risk of violence within 24 hours. It evaluates behaviors such as confusion, irritability, boisterousness, verbal threats, physical threats, and attacks on objects. Effective prevention strategies, better security protocols, and improved training programs are needed to protect healthcare workers and ensure a safer work environment. Tennessee is home to about two hundred emergency rooms. To ensure adequate outreach and distribution of resources, a budget of $16,500 to cover the cost of printing, laminating, and shipping of the checklist to each hospital system with emergency rooms in Tennessee. The budget would also account for the technology application of the checklist and additional security measures.
The implementation of this checklist and additional education for care professionals would begin in the next quarter which is marked by April 1st. This initial phase introduces the checklist and how it can be effectively implemented. Emergency rooms across Tennessee would be issued research that has been collected, along with the Broset Violence Checklist and instructions on how it can be implemented practically at the bedside. Each emergency room unit would also be instructed to keep track of the number of times this checklist was used, the scores that were obtained being a one or higher, and for the scores indicating present possible violence the number of times preventative measures were taken. At the end of the quarter, the data will be complied and evaluated for effectiveness. Additionally, at the end of the second quarter, nurses, providers, and team leaders would have the opportunity to share and reflect on the checklist. Following the collection and analysis of feedback the checklist and subsequent research would continue to support evidence-based practice and interventions.
Recommended Citation
Copeland, Caroline D.; Michalopoulos, Jasmine; Desrosiers, Haley; and Lanning, Emily, "A Workplace Violence Prevention Initiative in Nursing" (2025). SPARK Symposium Presentations. 102.
https://repository.belmont.edu/spark_presentations/102
Adobe Scan Mar 31, 2025.pdf (282 kB)
Haley D.pdf (424 kB)
Copyright Agreement (Jasmine Michalopoulos).pdf (118 kB)
distribution_agreement.pdf (102 kB)
