Relations between patient and staff member characteristics and staff member injury on a psychiatric inpatient unit for children with intellectual or developmental disabilities

Problem Staff member injuries are a pervasive and long‐standing problem for psychiatric inpatient units. Method The current study analyzed the prevalence of staff member injury and characteristics of patients that injured staff on a specialized psychiatric unit for children with intellectual or deve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of child and adolescent psychiatric nursing Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 125 - 130
Main Authors:	Romani, Patrick W., Ariefdjohan, Merlin, Jensen Gaffey, Lyndsay L., Torres‐Dominguez, Maria, Lister, Jada
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-08-2020
Subjects:	Aggression Aggressiveness Applied behavior analysis Autism Spectrum Disorders Autistic children Behavior Patterns Body Composition Child & adolescent mental health Child & adolescent psychiatry Child psychology Clinical practice guidelines Developmental disabilities Employment Patterns Injuries Intellectual disabilities Mental institutions Nurse patient relationships Nursing Patients Physician patient relationships psychiatric inpatient unit Psychological Patterns Severe Intellectual Disability staff injury Therapist patient relationships Workplace violence developmental disabilities staff injury psychiatric inpatient unit applied behavior analysis
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Summary:	Problem Staff member injuries are a pervasive and long‐standing problem for psychiatric inpatient units. Method The current study analyzed the prevalence of staff member injury and characteristics of patients that injured staff on a specialized psychiatric unit for children with intellectual or developmental disabilities. We evaluated staffing patterns as well as characteristics of patients (e.g., diagnoses, body mass index) between 2016 and 2018. This time period was selected because it represented an approximately equal period before and after the introduction of a new clinical model that incorporated applied behavior analysis (ABA) and other safety‐related practices (e.g., personal protective equipment). Findings During this study period, there were 110 cases of staff injuries caused by 42 patients. Injuries were most likely to occur during physical management of a patient engaging in aggressive behavior, but less so when strategies requiring less physical contact were implemented. The frequency of staff injury was also significantly related to patients' diagnoses, particularly those exhibiting aggressive behavior and diagnosed with moderate‐to‐severe intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorder. Conclusions Robust staff training incorporating the principles of ABA and the provision of other safety‐related resources can be integrated to clinical guidelines to promote the safety of staff practicing in psychiatric inpatient units.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1073-6077 1744-6171
DOI:	10.1111/jcap.12291