Triage Fundamentals #7: Victims of Violence

Course overview

As the incidence (and documented reports) of family violence has risen, the frequency of violence in the healthcare workplace has also escalated. Triage staff must be vigilant in complying with organizational policy and ask assessment questions that increase victim identification. They need to develop an understanding of the cycle of violence, perpetrator characteristics, and victim responses in order to be well-versed in early identification of potentials for violence and be able to impact outcomes related to patient safety. In this activity, we cover the following topics on family violence: intimate partner violence, elder abuse and child abuse. 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.