Importance of Assessment Tools for Nurses in Identifying Aggressive Behaviour of Patients

This essay discusses the importance of assessment tools for nurses in identifying aggressive behaviour of patients in critical care settings and the impact of not having proper assessment tools on nurses.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Article 1: Aggressive behaviour risk assessment tool for long-term
Research aim and Questions: Aim of this research is to validate usefulness of the Aggressive
Behaviour Risk Assessment Tool for Long-Term Care in predicting aggressive events
Research design: correlational research design was chosen to validate usefulness of Aggressive
Behaviour Risk Assessment Tool.
Settings and sample: 615 patients admitted in care homes in Canada were taken
Method: Quantitative data analysis method was taken for analysis of numerical data collected.
Main results: put of 615 patients, 47 of them showed aggressive behaviour and Aggressive
Behaviour Risk Assessment Tool successfully helped in identifying aggressive patients.
Study Limitations: this study did not focus upon identifying ways in which not having proper
assessment tool for identifying aggressive patients can affect them.
Overall findings and conclusion: Aggressive Behaviour Risk Assessment Tool was an important
tool for assessment of aggression in patients or residents of care homes.
Implications: this tool is a it effective in identifying aggression among people so it can be used
by nurses in critical care settings.
Article 2: The validity and utility of violence risk assessment tools to predict patient violence in
acute care settings.
Research aim: Aim of this research is To examine risk assessment tools to predict patient
violence in acute care settings.
Research design: Exploratory research design was used for this qualitative research study.
Settings and sample: no same was taken for this study, in fact in this literature review was done
in which PICOS framework was used for designing research question
Method: PRISMA method was used as a search strategy, and PICOS framework was used for
development of research questions.
Main results: results clearly helped in understanding that there was no proper tool that can be
used for predicting violence in patients in acute care hospitals.
Study Limitations: this study did not focus upon evaluating impact of not having a prepare
assessment tool on nurses in identifying aggression in patients in critical care unit.
Overall findings and conclusion: It was identified that assessing violence in psychotic patients is
important to be done and is of potential use in providing acute care to them
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Implications: These results can be generalized and applied to critical care settings as well
because identifying violence and aggression of patients does impact their care.
Article 3: Validating a measurement tool to predict aggressive behavior in hospitalized youth.
Research aim: To determine if aggressive behaviour of hospitalized youth is better predicted
with DASA-YV versus instinct tool.
Research design: prospective validation design method was used for this research study.
Settings and sample: In this no sample were taken only 6 months pilot study was carried out in
this research.
Method: Pilot study was done in this research.
Main results: DASA-YV tool was found to be reliable and valid in predicting aggression in a
hospitalized youth population.
Study Limitations: Only two tools were evaluated that can be useful for nurses, effectiveness of
other available tools were not focused upon.
Overall findings and conclusion: DASA-YV tool is a useful tool for psychiatric nurses that
positively affects safety for practising safe care and practise in handing young patients.
Implications: effectiveness of DASA-YV tool for psychotic nurses clearly helps in understanding
that this tool can be used by nurses in critical care settings as well for identifying aggression in
other patients as well
Article 4: Do risk assessment tools help manage and reduce risk of violence and reoffending
Research aim: To evaluate whether risk assessment tools help manage and reduce risk of
violence and reoffending.
Research design: Clinical study design was chosen for this qualitative study.
Settings and sample: no sample population was taken in this as it is a secondary qualitative
study.
Method: Systematic review and narrative synthesis method was chosen for reviewing 73
published and unpublished studies.
Main results: Usage of appropriate and effective risk management tool for nurses can help them
in providing effective treatment but do not guarantee.
Study Limitations: In this study all risk management tools were focused upon but this study does
not focus upon specific violence assessment tools.
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Overall findings and conclusion: results of this study helps in concluding that there are various
kinds of risk management tool that can be used for proving better treatment to patients but none
of these tools can guarantee that effective treatment will be provided.
Implications: this study results clearly help in understanding that in order to adopt appropriate
and effective risk or aggression assessment tool it is important to understand its appropriateness
for nurses only then it would guarantee identification of aggression within patients and provide
effective treatment to patients.
Article 5: Engaging with nurses to develop an occupational violence risk assessment tool for use
in emergency departments.
Research aim: To determine and understand need for desirable and potential utility components
of an occupational violence risk assessment tool; and to determine appropriate and relevant
challenges that can be faced if an appropriate tool is implemented within a hospital.
Research design: Exploratory research design was chosen for this research study.
Settings and sample: 15 nurses were selected for this study
Method: semi structured interview was conducted in this research and thematic analysis was
dome collaboratively with Braun and Clarke’s technique.
Main results: it was identified that each assessment tool has its own specific attributes but with
various implementation challenges.
Study Limitations: this study focused upon general occupational violence suffered by nurses but
did not specifically focus upon violence or aggression faced by nurses due to patients.
Overall findings and conclusion: development of occupational violence assessment tool can help
in providing support to nurses so that they can deal with any kind of occupational violence.
Implications: Hospitals should focus upon developing their own aggression assessment tool that
can be implemented and used by nurses working in critical care settings.
ESSAY
Introduction
There are various kinds of assessment tools that are used by nurses for different purposes
that helps them in providing proper and effective care to their patients (Kim, Berry & Young,
2019). But many times, due to violence or aggressive behaviour of patients it becomes difficult
for nurses to provide effective care to patients especially in critical care settings. This essay will
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focus upon identifying practise issues that emerge or are faced by nurses as a result of not having
proper assessment tools to assess aggression among patients in critical care settings.
Main body
Importance of assessment tools for nurses in identifying aggressive behaviour of patients
Assessment tools plays a vital and important role in critical care settings for nurses. It
helps nurses in evaluating overall behaviour of patients, identify and evaluate amount of risk to
which they are getting exposed (Ghosh & et. al., 2019). But most importantly it can help nurses
in evaluating overall behaviour of patients so that even if a patient has aggressive behaviour or
can easily get violent then they can prepare themselves accordingly and can develop care plan
accordingly. Usage of a proper and appropriate assessment tool for identify aggressive behaviour
of patients help nurses in maintaining a safe working environment where they can practise safe
care and handing of aggressive patients. But there are various studies that explains that there are
it is important for nurses to identify which assessment tool is appropriate and correct for them to
be used to provide effective treatment because all assessment tools do not guarantee proper and
effective care or treatment (Dutch & Patil, 2019).
Impact of not having aggression assessment tool upon nurses
Not having a proper and appropriate assessment tool can put nurses in risk. This is
because not identifying aggressive behaviour of patients before developing a care plan for them
and providing care can result in increasing changes of getting indulged in violence due to
aggressive or violent behaviour of patients. They can even get hurt due to patient’s aggressive
behaviour (Viljoen, Cochrane & Jonnson, 2018). Not having a proper assessment tool can further
result in increasing difficulties in providing care to patients and if a patient is of critical care unit,
then it can further result in reduced effectiveness of treatment. Due to these issues, it becomes
important for nurses to have a proper and accurate assessment tool which can easily identify
aggression within a patient so that care plan for such patients can be developed and accordingly
and those patients are handled by nurses in a different manner so that facing aggression of those
patients by nurses can be reduced (Cabilan, Johnston & Eley, 2020).
Conclusion
From the above essay it has been summarized that it is extremely important for nurses
working in critical care unit to have a correct and proper assessment tool that can be used by
them to identify and evaluate aggression among patients admitted in critical care unit in
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hospitals. It is important for nurses to Adopt a proper assessment tool because to most aggressive
patients it can become difficult for nurses to provide them proper care and sometimes, they can
even face violence or can get harmed due to such violent behaviour of patients.
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REFERENCES
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