Research on how nurse and patient’s communication effectively help to reduce violence and aggression in mental health unit

Violence and aggression in hospitals and emergency departments are very common all over the world (Rahimzadeh, Zabihi & Hosseini, 2011). It occurs in almost all types of environment and healthcare setting where different types of people experienced very close interaction in terms of service provider and service user. Generally, the two terms ‘‘violence and aggression’’ is used to describe the wide range of verbal and non-verbal, physical and non-physical events that hospitals’ inpatients, staffs and nurses experience in their jobs, both intentional and non-intentional. These are the main causes of stress, feeling of anxiety and powerlessness for the staff in the inpatient unit (Angland, Dowling & Casey, 2014). Violence in the health sector is an increasing concern on the part of patients and clinical staff therefore, the safety of clinical and non-clinical staff in all hospitals and emergency department units for mental health. A lot of past study and ongoing research have found a substantial rise in the number of recorded incidences of violence and aggression against staff and other users of the service, i.e. patients (O’Rourke, Wrigley & Hammond, 2018). Moreover, mental health problems can have a significant impact on those actively involved in the patient’s care.

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Violence and aggression occur from time to time in mental health facilities and are linked to significant individual costs for those who are abused, and also significant economic costs for the healthcare service (Price, Baker, Bee & Lovell, 2018). Aggression may take place for a number of different reasons. Many researches provide interaction between staff and patients as a substantial antecedent for violent events, primarily in mental health and emergency treatment facilities (Baby, Gale & Swain, 2018). Interactional behaviours and limited communication abilities of negative workers are clear precursors to aggression and violence (Mack & Nesbitt, 2016). In addition, violence and aggression in healthcare sector are not limited to high-risk areas such as hospital emergency rooms and clinical units. It is also a major issue in old-age care and community settings facilities (Schablon et al., 2012).

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Communication is a competence required to create interpersonal relations, and a resource for diagnosing illnesses and offering suitable therapies. Good communication demands patient comprehension and the perceptions they convey (Baby, Gale & Swain, 2018). This takes skill and, at the same time, the healthcare worker’s real interest to consider what affects the patient.

Communication is an interactive process between health care professionals and patients. Furthermore, it requires the skills and ability of the hospital staff and nurse to show care and concern about the medical condition of the patients especially those who are facing violence, aggression and mental trauma, thereby encouraging the patient to share their problems with them (Baby, 2018). Good hospital staff and patient communication help patients to reduce violence and aggression in mental health unit. Moreover, inpatient units need to be free from any type of violence activities and aggression so that patient’s recovery process will be as quick as possible.

References

Angland, S., Dowling, M., & Casey, D. (2014). Nurses’ perceptions of the factors which cause violence and aggression in the emergency department: a qualitative study. International emergency nursing, 22(3), 134-139.

Baby, M. (2018). “It’s all about Communication”–An Intervention to Minimise Patient Perpetrated Aggression for Healthcare Support Workers: A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial (Doctoral dissertation, University of Otago).

Baby, M., Gale, C., & Swain, N. (2018). Communication skills training in the management of patient aggression and violence in healthcare. Aggression and violent behavior, 39, 67-82.

O’Rourke, M., Wrigley, C., & Hammond, S. (2018). Violence within mental health services: how to enhance risk management. Risk management and healthcare policy, 11, 159.

Price, O., Baker, J., Bee, P., & Lovell, K. (2018). The support-control continuum: An investigation of staff perspectives on factors influencing the success or failure of de-escalation techniques for the management of violence and aggression in mental health settings. International journal of nursing studies, 77, 197-206.

Rafati Rahimzadeh, M., Zabihi, A., & Hosseini, S. J. (2011). Verbal and physical violence on nurses in hospitals of Babol University of Medical Sciences. Journal of hayat, 17(2), 5-11.