Mental Health Nursing: Report

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Literature review on the efficacy of de-escalating techniques on aggression reduction
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1MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Executive summary
Patient aggression leads to occupational violence in emergency mental healthcare departments.
Stigmatizing attitudes and non-cooperative behavior from the staff influences the occurrence of
aggressive incidents. The report aims to determine the efficacy of several de-escalation
techniques to reduce and manage patient aggression through an extensive literature review.

2MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
2. Literature review......................................................................................................................4
a. Search methodology.............................................................................................................4
b. Inclusion and exclusion criteria............................................................................................4
c. Review..................................................................................................................................4
d. Critical appraisal...................................................................................................................8
3. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

3MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
1. Introduction
One of the most serious issues associated with mentally ill or psychiatric patients is display
of aggressive behavior. Fear of aggression is the most common stigma. This leads to
discrimination towards the patients and creates a hindrance in the process of providing holistic
patient-centered care (Kowalenko et al., 2012). Mental patients are more likely to become
vulnerable to aggressive behavior that increases risk of injuries for the clinical practitioners. A
clinician faces challenges while caring for such patients (Angland, Dowling & Casey, 2014).
Providing care to an aggressive patient emotionally exhausts a physician and they face difficulty
while interacting with these assaultive patients.
Several physical intervention strategies have been employed by physicians and nurses since
ages while working with aggressive clients. De-escalation acts as an important factor that can
reduce seclusion or traditional physical interventions. Recent studies lay emphasis on such
techniques that have proved their potential in easing an escalated or heightened situation in a
violent patient. De-escalation involves monitoring and controlling non-verbal behavior, eye
contact, voice tone and body posture by the staff to avoid violent situations (Bosse & Provoost,
2014, June). These techniques focus on the identification of several triggers and cues that can
make a patient upset, listening to complains and reflecting upon a proper care plan that will cater
to the demands of an aggressive patient (Roberton et al., 2012). The report will focus on a
literature review of some of the recently conducted studies that have established the efficacy of
de-escalating techniques in reducing aggression.