Stand Up to Violence: Let’s Get Our Ducks in a Row

Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon

Nov 20, 2024

CSI Summary

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CSI Presentation

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CSI Toolkit

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Project Topic:

Workplace violence

Hospital, City and State:

Oregon Health and Science University, Portland Oregon

Unit:

Emergency Department

CSI Participants:

  • Stephanie Neckles BSN, RN
  • Evey McKellar BSN, RN
  • Jooae Park BSN, RN, CEN
  • Rajvinder Singerkhanee BSN, RN, CEN

Project Goals/Objectives:

  1. Increase Healthy Work Environment Assessment Tool (HWEAT) Authentic Leadership score to 4.0-4.99
  2. Increase HWE Qualitative Survey Likert score of confidence from 3.26 to > 4.0
  3. Empower nurses to feel safe through knowledge of resources

Project Outcomes:

  1. Increased HWEAT Authentic Leadership score from 3.39 to 3.82
  2. Increased HWE Qualitative Survey Likert score of confidence from 3.26 to 3.74
  3. All HWEAT scores increased (note: response rate was 27%)
  4. Nurses utilized available resources by increased use of code greens
  5. Teamwork among staff nurses and management
  6. Buy in from Department of Public Safety (Campus Police)

Project Overview:

The goal of this project was to educate and empower Emergency Department Nurses by consolidating resources into one area. This was done by pulling the most important documents into a binder and Sharepoint site. Every nurse was provided a badge buddy that has emergency phone numbers along with a QR code for the Sharepoint site (with access to updated policies). We had monthly rounding to review important safety topics such as administrative discharges, code greens (violent patient code), safety searches, Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), and de-escalation techniques.

Outcomes included more reporting of incidents with workplace violence. Although we didn’t track paid time off for physical injury or emotional distress or nurse turnover connected with workplace violence, our unit manager may track this as a potential fiscal impact in the future.

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Disclaimer
The AACN CSI Academy program supports change projects based on quality improvement methods. Although CSI teams seek to ensure linkage between their project and clinical/fiscal outcomes, data cannot be solely attributed to the project and are estimations of impact.