Topic proposal/final paper

Topic Proposal for Final Paper

The topic I am interested in pursuing for my analytical report is violence in the Emergency Department. Health care professionals are four times more likely to become the victim of violence than any other industry. Most of this occurs in the Emergency Department or on the psychiatric floor. The Emergency Department is a stressful place. Patients and families are often in crisis, thus creating an environment that increases the potential for violence. I have noticed an increase in the number of violent episodes in the past few years. We are required to take non-violent crisis intervention classes at work. Despite this push for education in recognizing and handling violent patients, I am noticing an increase in violence in the Emergency Department. Something is not working. I want to investigate and explore why the trend of violent acts towards health care workers is increasing and what can be done to stop it and to increase the safety of the staff of the ED. In the past two weeks, we have had four employees injured by patients in violent attacks. Last year a nurse was severely injured by a violent patient. She was off work for four months because of her injuries. Some attitudes that we encounter are “it’s part of the job” or because the patient is a “customer” we have to tolerate this abuse. We are there to care for patients, yet it is as if we have lost our right to be treated with respect.