September 22, 2017 – Handcuffed Nurse

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Anchor lead: Just how much abuse do nurses endure? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Occupational Safety and Health Administration data tell us that healthcare workers are four times more likely than others to experience workplace violence, a statistic that may not be surprising in light of the recent handcuffing of a Utah emergency department nurse by a policeman. Patricia Davidson, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, says the problem is escalating.

Davidson: There is a torrent of inappropriate behaviors from patients when they’re attributable to a medical condition. We are seeing an increasing intensity and really frequency of these events. We have to have better interventions for managing delirium, for managing challenging behaviors, particularly in people who are mentally incapacitated. How do we use conversational skills or conversational skills to cool conversations down, rather than heating them up?  :32

Davidson affirms that developing new protocols and communications channels is also key to de-escalating violence against nurses. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.