Abstract
[This is an excerpt.] One recent night a nurse at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California, awakened a patient to provide anti-seizure medication and got a frightening response. The patient “became verbally aggressive” toward the staff, and when the patient’s roommate said, “Don’t be rude to your nurse,” the patient snapped at him, pushed aside the curtain separating their beds, threw something at him, and resumed resisting the staff. Thus began another assault against health care workers, whom the federal government reports are five times more likely to experience workplace violence than employees in all other industries. In the past, staff options in such confrontations were typically limited to some form of calming the patient on their own or calling security. In this case, the UC Davis staff called the hospital’s new Behavioral Escalation Support Team (BEST), comprising care providers trained in mental health care and de-escalating conflicts. The BEST staff calmed the patient and, with the nurse present, explained that nurses must visit frequently to check vital signs and well-being. The patient quieted and agreed to cooperate with the nurses. [To read more, click View Resource.]
This resource is found in our Actionable Strategies for Professional Associations: Spotlights: Professional Associations Operational Strategies (Ensuring Physical & Mental Health).
