Journal of emergency nursing : JEN : official publication of the Emergency Department Nurses Association
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Workplace violence is not a unique problem to organizations. Evidence-based toolkits and strategies are available to help provide a guiding framework for the reduction of workplace violence events. As times and stressors (both personal and environmental) change, hospitals must keep constant attention on how to address and implement initiatives to keep staff safe. This manuscript addresses steps taken at 1 hospital to meet this challenge. ⋯ Workplace violence is not part of the job. Ongoing work is needed to continue to move the needle and make hospitals a safer place to work. Engagement from all levels of the organization is necessary to have a successful program.
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Workplace violence remains a significant threat to the United States health care workforce. With increasingly aggressive patients, emergency nurses reported that the increased prevalence of workplace violence impacted their professional and personal lives. ⋯ Our findings were consistent with other studies exploring the effects of workplace violence in emergency departments. We validated that trauma has long-lasting effects. Organizations should ensure that programs and processes are in place to support the nurse or health care worker when workplace violence events occur.
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Complex personal duress alarms may be implemented as part of a multicomponent approach to preventing and mitigating workplace violence in emergency departments. Evaluation of duress alarms after implementation has been identified as a gap in the literature. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to examine the impact of a duress alarm system on workplace violence and user experience in an urban emergency department. ⋯ Ongoing engagement of clinical staff is critical to the success of health care technology implementations. Staff feedback, periodic re-education, and recurring process evaluations are vital to ensuring the continued relevance of systems, especially when staff safety is the intended purpose.