Workplace Violence in Emergency Room Analysis (Research Paper Sample)

Workplace Violence in Emergency Room
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PICO(T) Question
How do worker education strategies help prevent workplace violence in emergency rooms?
Definition of the PICO(T) question
The problem is reported globally and more significantly in emergency rooms. Nurses and other medical practitioners working in emergency rooms face physical assault from patients. In most cases, patients suffering from anxiety, acute stress, suicidal ideation, dementia, drug intoxication, alcohol abuse, and schizophrenia present challenges to medical practitioners (D’Ettore, Mazzotta, Pellicani & Vullo, 2018). That is because their judgment is impaired, and they can react violently to service providers. The patients carry a significant physical risk to the nurses and other medical practitioners. Therefore, the issue is substantial in emergency rooms and needs to be addressed to ensure a safe working environment.
In this case, the problem (P) is workplace violence in emergency rooms. The specific population (P) in the research questions are nurses, doctors and other staff who work in the emergency rooms and vulnerable to violence. That being a major issue, an intervention is required to help protect the workers against any form of violence. The interventions will offer a sustainable solution to alleviate or mitigate the challenge (D’Ettore et al., 2018). Further, identifying several alternatives to prevent the issue will provide an opportunity to compare (C) the most suitable strategy to use to address the problem. That is essential in appraising the best practice to address the problem. The other options will serve as the best practices healthcare organizations can apply depending on their context to solve the issue. The anticipated outcome (O) will be to reduce or altogether avoid incidences of violence in emergency rooms (Spelten, Thomas, O’Meara, van Vuuren, & McGillion, 2020). Finally, any intervention recommended could be implemented for six months (T). The time will be adequate in measuring the impact of the outcome and identify any changes to make it more effective.
The sources of evidence that could answer the PICO(T) question
The first article to use in answering the question is "Workplace violence in the emergency department: Giving staff the tools and support to report" by Stene, Larson, Levy, and Dohlman (2015). The study sought to establish the workers' perception in emergency rooms about reporting and identifying issues that constituted violence.
The other research that could help develop an intervention to the problem is “Addressing risks of violence against healthcare staff in emergency departments: The effects of job satisfaction and attachment style” by Berlanda, Pedrazza, Fraizzoli and Cordova (2019). The study aimed at establishing the prevalence of patient violence in various emergency departments in the Northern parts of Italy. It also aimed to determine the impact of job satisfaction, adult attachment style, and age on the vice.
The findings from the two articles
In the first article, it was established that the nurses and other practitioners had little knowledge about reporting violence cases. Further, they did not know what constituted violence. As a result, most of the nurses were underreporting, and as a result, little or no resources were provided to support them. The study was conducted among 154 nurses working with Mayo Clinic in the United States. Since reporting was found to hinder violence in emergency rooms, the reach team sent an online survey containing 19 questions, some of which interrogated the strategies that can be used to prevent the issue (Stene et al., 2015). In the study, the participants agreed that workplace violence is part of their job. However, they concurred that an education program was essential. That is because it increased the nurses' knowledge about what constituted workplace violence and what should be reported for action. Consequently, the study established that an education program that was implemented increase the rate of reporting, and action was taken to create a safer environment. In that regard, appropriate education and reporting tools and leadership support enable the creation of a culture with zero tolerance to violence.
The second study established that patient and visitor violence towards the staff working in emergency rooms poses a significant challenge to many healthcare organizations. It is a risk both to the nurses and doctors. The problem is aggravated by several factors deriving from patient pathologies and how the workplace has been organized. Based on multiple regressions performed on the questionnaires sent online to the nurses and doctors sent to nurses and doctors working in emergency departments in healthcare facilities located in northeastern Italy, several factors contribute to the challenge. They include job satisfaction, age, and adult attachment style (Berlanda et al., 2019). For example, greater age and secure attachment reduced instances of emotional violence from visitors and patients. Also, the study showed that job satisfaction perpetrated the problem of emotional violence. That is because the staff could quickly get emotional since they are not motivated. In response to that, the study established that staff training could help tame the problem. The staff will acquire more knowledge on preventing and managing patients and visitors who could be emotional. The staff training was found to reduce incidences of violence that occur in emergency departments significantly. This view is closely related to the finding of the first article that observed that staff education program positively impacts incidences of violence. With the knowledge they acquire, the staff can detect and report incidences of violence for an action to be taken.
The relevance of the findings to making a decision about the PICO(T) question
The problem identified in the research question is the occurrence of workplace violence in emergency departments. The specific question will be to examine how worker education strategies help prevent workplace violence in emergency rooms. The two articles and other related literature show that issue is common globally (Stene et al., 2015). Nurses and doct