The Development of an Acute Care Nursing Educational Module to De-escalate Behaviorally Difficult Patients Diagnosed with Psychiatric Disorder

The noisy, hectic hospital environment can have a negative impact on the behaviors and actions of patients diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. Consequences of disruptive behaviors from patients can cause increased stress, injuries, falls, restraint use, staff burnout, and higher turnover rates. Patients may also become violent from the increased turmoil on the unit which interferes with the therapeutic milieu. Nursing staff are faced with these challenges but report a lack of mental health education to provide safe and competent care for this patient population. Many healthcare organizations do not provide psychiatric care education and behavior management training to medical-surgical nurses. There is a need for acute care nurses to learn the necessary skills to control an escalating situation. This master's thesis involved collaboration with experts in the psychiatric field to develop a web-based nursing educational module to demonstrate de-escalation techniques to use with behaviorally difficult patients diagnosed with psychiatric disorders.