Upload
zackery-jess
View
216
Download
2
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
The Impact and effect of vulnerability on staff
Dr. Yafa Haron, Dror Tran
Mazra Mental Health Medical Center, Israel
Vulnerability: The state of being subjected to injury (physical or emotional), unprotected from danger. Susceptible to attack; insufficiently defended. (The American Heritage Dictionary)
Ironically, one of the most hazardous work settings for an employee of mental a health institution is his own department. (Caldwell M.F., Hospital Community Psychiatry, 1992)
Unfortunately, Workplace violence is a virtually normative experience for the psychiatric staff, rather than a rare occurrence. (Lanza M.L., Zeiss R., Rierdan J. Mental Health Nursing, 2008)
Moreover, the media contributes to the notion that mental health nursing occupies an aberrant, secret and dangerous world and that its role remains one of custodial companionship. (De Carlo K., et al., Int. J. Mental Health Nursing, 2007)
Staff working in psychiatric departments were shown to experience severe psychological impact when exposed to violence or verbal abuse. (Makoto I. et al., Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. 2006)
Family BehaviorPatient Behavior
Beliefs andAttitudes of the General Public
Staff Vulnerability
Factors from the legal System
Research ModelResearch Model
Factors from the Ministry of Health/
hospital management
To estimate the level of staff vulnerability that is related to the above mentioned various factors.
To evaluate to what degree does the level of vulnerability affect the process of clinical decision making, during various situations?
Cross - sectional study
Questionnaire - 26 situations indicating daily life in the
departments - 4 point scale.
Sample - personal from 9 departments; doctors, nurses,
social workers, psychologists, and occupational
therapists. A total of 150 (83%) respondents from a total
staff of 180.
Was based on a scale designed to measure staff perceptions regarding difficult psychiatric situations.
Palmer G.A. et al., The Internet Journal of Mental Health, 2006.
The Questionnaire:
Situation Not at all
Slightly A lot Greatly Not at all
Slightly A lot Greatly Not at all
Slightly A lot Greatly
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
1 Patient who smokes in the department
2 Physical threat
3 Lack of supervisor support
4 Lack of cooperation
5 Problematic compoition of staff in a shift
Discomfort Threat Feeling of continuous vulnerability
Grade the following situations and your feelings of:
A questionnaire evaluating discomfort, threat and continuous vulnerability
Situations Provide acceptable treatment and extra attentive
Provide acceptable treatment
Attempt to be not involved in treatment
Refrain from being involved in treatment
Not relevant
1 Patient who is verbally abusive towards me during treatment
2 Lack of cooperation among various staff members
3 Patient who threatens to hurt me
4 Fear of lack of supervisory support
5 Patient who previously verbally attacked me
A questionnaire evaluating how do certain situations influence the therapeutic treatment processPlease grade the following situations:
Patient who threatens to harm me 3.18 Patient who previously physically threatened me 3.0 Patient family members who verbally threaten the staff 3.1 Fear of lack of necessary senior staff support 3.06 Lack of collaboration among various staff sectors 3.06 Unfavorable/criticizing articles and media reports 2.9
Situations Causing Least Discomfort (or not at all)
Presence of Students in the ward 1.3Patient knowledgeable about illness 1.3
Patient who threatens to hurt me 3.2 Patient who previously physically hurt me 3.0
Least Threatening Situations (or not at all)• Presence of family during treatment 1.5• Presence of a Lawyer 1.4• Presence of Immediate supervisor and directors of
other departments 1.4• Present of a well informed patient 1.3• Presence of students 1.26
Presence of a patient who threatens to hurt me 2.7
Presence of a patient who previously physically harmed me
2.7
Insufficient support from supervisor 2.7
Racial insults of patients
Unfavorable/criticizing media reports or T.V. programs
Presence of a police investigator
Overly involved or verbally abusive family members who
are present during treatment
Treating patient with a history of drug abuse
NursesNurses presented the highest vulnerability feelings as compared to other sectors in the fallowing situations:
At the presence of a restrained patient
Patient who physically threatens them
Patient with delusional thoughts
Patient who physically attacked in the past
An over involved family
Family that threatens to file a complaint
Presence of a police investigator
DoctorsDoctors exhibited lower vulnerability feelings as compared to other sectors in the fallowing situations:
Patient who smokes in the ward
Presence of direct and indirect superiors
Presence of police investigators
Patient with delusional thoughts
Social workers had the highest discomfort as compared to other sectors in the following situations
Psychologists had the highest average score as compared to other sectors in the following circumstances:
Discomfort
A restrained Patient
Unsuitable or lack of suitable physical-setting
ThreatPatient who threatens to harm me
Patient who previously physically attacked me
racial insults of a patientVulnerabilityPatient who verbally abuses
Presence of a lawyer in the department
Various media articles Presence of a police
investigator Present of a family during
treatment
Men Women
A patient has delusional thoughts about me
A patient has previouslyphysically attacked me
Problematic composition of staff during shifts (doctors and nurses)
Staff fear they do not have supervisor support (30% of nurses)
Lack of cooperation among various staff sectors (30% of doctors)
Unsuitable or lack of suitable physical-setting in the department (30% of nurses) Criticizing articles and media reports (25% of staff)
Situations that influence the staff to pay more attention during Treatment
Patient who threatens to harm me Patient who has previously attacked me physically Patient with delusions about me Patient who racially insults me Family members who express aggressive attitude
towards the staff (especially nurses) Family members who are over involved or threaten to
file a complaint (especially nurses)
Organizational factors such as physical setting, lack of supervisory support and lack of collaboration among different staff sectors, lead to over-attention during treatment
Patient and family verbal violence leads to over-attention while physical violence encourages staff to avoid treatment
Verbal abuse leads to feelings of being threatened and to a feeling of continuous vulnerability
There is a difference among sectors in the way they respond in various situations
Fear of lack of supervisory support leads to feelings of discomfort, threat, continuous vulnerability, and causes over-treatment of patient
Presence of an over-involved family leads to continuous feeling of vulnerability and avoidance of providing treatment
Men are more effected by the presence of representatives of the law, family and media. While Women are more effected by patient’s thoughts and violence.
Implementations of research Implementations of research findingsfindings In order to reduce the feeling of vulnerability, It is necessary to create workshops that include staff from all sectors, to emphasize the need for collaboration among allContinues supportive-supervision from the management, will contribute to reduce the feelings of threat, discomfort and staff vulnerability
To educate staff to handle patients and family violence
To market the psychiatric staff and treatment procedures in a positive manner