Citation

Clarke DE, Brown AM, Griffith P. J. Psychiatr. Ment. Health Nurs. 2010; 17(7): 614-620.

Affiliation

Research Faculty of Nursing, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1365-2850.2010.01558.x

PMID

20712684

Abstract

Fear of violence from patients may affect the quality of care mental health nurses provide. The Broset Violence Checklist (BVC), a six-item instrument, has the potential to assist health-care providers in identifying patients who may become aggressive. A trial of the BVC on a secure psychiatric intensive care unit suggested that the tool was well accepted by staff and may have contributed to reduced seclusion rates. Five-year follow-up has revealed an incorporation of the BVC into routine practice on the psychiatric intensive care unit. Abstract Violence towards health-care workers, especially in areas such as mental health/psychiatry, has become increasingly common, with nursing staff suggesting that a fear of violence from their patients may affect the quality of care they provide. Structured clinical tools have the potential to assist health-care providers in identifying patients who have the potential to become violent or aggressive. The Broset Violence Checklist (BVC), a six-item instrument that uses the presence or absence of three patient characteristics and three patient behaviours to predict the potential for violence within a subsequent 24-h period, was trialled for 3 months on an 11-bed secure psychiatric intensive care unit. Despite the belief on the part of some nurses that decisions related to risk for violence and aggression rely heavily on intuition, there was widespread acceptance of the tool. During the trial, use of seclusion decreased suggesting that staff were able to intervene before seclusion was necessary. The tool has since been implemented as a routine part of patient care on two units in a 92-bed psychiatric centre. Five-year follow-up data and implications for practice are presented.

Language: en