Triage Fundamentals #6: Violence Potentials in the Emergency Department

Course overview

Emergency departments in the U.S. are seen as "safety nets" for a broken healthcare system that provides limited access/options for many citizens. Despite being considered a safety net, this same environment has become an increasingly harmful workplace for those who serve those patients. Nearly 60% of all nonfatal assaults occur in the healthcare setting, and one of the three most dangerous healthcare work settings is the emergency department. Societal, cultural, and economic changes and ED overcrowding issues have all contributed to the increasing violence in EDs. In this course, we demonstrate how the emergency nurse can become more proactive in violence prevention, and that it is not okay to expect violence to happen just because you work in an ED. In addition, we will discuss how to support legislative action to increase penalties for perpetrators of violence. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to: examine three patient scenarios that are considered risks for violence in the emergency setting; devise at least two proactive and two reactive methods of de-escalating violence potentials; examine three categories of victims of violence that are commonly cared for in the emergency department; inspect at least three red flags the triage nurse should be alert to for each of the victim categories discussed; and compare two prompting questions related to family violence that are appropriate for initial triage screening when the patient is alone