Workplace Violence Prevention: Between Patients and Staff Utilizing the Broset Violence Checklist in an Adult Medical Surgical Telemetry Unit

Aggression against nurses physically and verbally in the workplace is an invasion of human dignity and jeopardizes the integrity of the individual and the nursing profession. This applied project highlights the importance of bringing awareness to violence against nurses and how nurses experiencing hostility in the workplace ultimately affect patient care. Awareness, education, and workplace violence prevention tools are critical components necessary to counteract workplace violence towards nurses. The Broset Violence Checklist (BVC)—an assessment tool with the main goal of assessing the potential for a patient to become violent within a 24-hour period—is a valuable tool to be added to the toolkit of violence prevention measures to protect nurses and patient care. Additionally, the BVC has been used in various psychiatric and emergency room departments, with comprehensive research studies showing positive outcomes utilizing the tool. Currently, there are no assessment tools used in the in-patient setting for Medical Surgical Telemetry units. Violence does not just occur in the Emergency Department or a Psychiatric Hospital. In-patient nurses are in dire need of a tool to help with early recognition of potential violence to diminish the chances of patients actually becoming violent. The aim of this applied project was to provide an educational module for nurses on using the BVC in the in-patient setting on Medical Surgical Telemetry units.Keywords: workplace violence, Broset Violence Checklist, Medical Surgical Telemetry unit