De-Escalating Violence in Healthcare

Violent incidents are more than four times as likely to occur in healthcare settings than in other professional workplaces, taking a toll on healthcare workers and spurring providers and policymakers to solve the increasing impact of violence.

The most beneficial method of preventing healthcare violence is de-escalation—using therapeutic communication and interventions to defuse emotional tension. In De-Escalating Violence in Healthcare, author S.E. McKnight provides tools and techniques to help nurses and other healthcare professionals manage aggressive behavior and foster a safer workplace.

Readers will learn to:

• Understand the variables, risk factors, and triggers of aggression and violence
• Assess mental health status and practice conflict resolution and crisis intervention
• Identify and manage difficult behavioral issues associated with schizophrenia, dementia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and other conditions
• Foster a caring and healing environment to reduce violence
• Build a healthcare violence prevention program

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Table of Contents

• Chapter 1 De-escalation for Holistic Wellness
• Chapter 2 Variables and Risk Factors for Aggression
• Chapter 3 Assessing an Escalating Situation for Early Intervention
• Chapter 4 De-escalation Techniques
• Chapter 5 Therapeutic Communication for De-escalation
• Chapter 6 Stress-Management Techniques
• Chapter 7 Conflict Resolution
• Chapter 8 Crisis Intervention
• Chapter 9 Managing Mental Health Emergencies
• Chapter 10 Performing a Mental Status Assessment
• Chapter 11 De-escalation of Patients With Mental Disorders
• Chapter 12 De-escalation of Patients Exhibiting Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) Behavior
• Chapter 13 De-escalation of Patients With Dementia
• Chapter 14 De-escalation of Patients With Delirium
• Chapter 15 De-escalation of "Difficult" Patients
• Chapter 16 De-escalation of Angry Patients
• Chapter 17 Staying Safe During De-escalation
• Chapter 18 After the Incident
• Chapter 19 Creating a Calming, Caring, and Healing Healthcare Environment
• Chapter 20 Developing a Healthcare Violence-Prevention Plan

About the Authors

S.E. McKnight, DNP, MSN, BA, RN-BC, a mental health educator for more than 22 years, is an adjunct instructor at the University of West Florida. She divides her time among clinical practice, training, consulting, scholarly writing, and research focusing on de-escalation training to prevent violence and promote holistic wellness and recovery. McKnight developed the first competency-based mental health learning needs assessment for professional nursing practice, which has been published by the American Psychiatric Association as a best practice instrument for research and education.