Doctor of Nursing Practice Program

• Committee Chair Name & Credentials:
  Ken Nelson III, DNP, RN, NE-BC, CPHQ

DNP Project Abstract

Creating an ambulatory workplace violence program

Purpose
Violence toward healthcare professionals by patients, families, or visitors is a growing problem for many healthcare organizations. Workplace violence has been associated with reduced job satisfaction, commitment and efficiency, low quality of life, increased stress, sleep disruption, burnout, and even death. Therefore, we aimed to create a comprehensive and structured ambulatory workplace violence prevention, reporting, and support program among all ambulatory care clinics.

Methods
Create a manager toolkit that will help individuals navigate workplace violence. The workplace violence committee will use the plan, do, study, act (PDSA) improvement model to create materials, present materials to key stakeholders, collect feedback on materials, iterate, and then train on the use of the materials. The toolkit is a manager checklist, instructions on actions, documentation, and adding staff safety flags in EPIC, support resources, and workflow to legally guide the manager through the patient warning and dismissal process.

Results
After the training is conducted, we will measure the number of reported workplace violence incidences in the ambulatory care setting and the managers' perception of preparedness to handle incidences.

Implications for Practice
Creating an ambulatory workplace violence program will help address workplace violence in the unique outpatient setting and provide support and a much-needed sense of psychological safety for several thousand staff and faculty members.