Date of Conferral

2015

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Susan Randers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether Crisis Alleviation Lessons and Methods -© (CALM), as a behavioral crisis management program, was effective in reducing patient and healthcare professional injuries in a long-term residential care setting. This research was needed due to the lack of peer-reviewed scholarly literature on the effectiveness of behavioral crisis management programs, especially on programs using both nonphysical and physical de-escalation techniques, such as CALM. An auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) time series analysis was performed to examine the effect the implementation of the CALM program (independent variable) had on the rate of injuries to healthcare providers and patients (dependent variables) using archival data from a long-term residential care facility. This time-series model was used to evaluate the relationship between the CALM program and the incidence of injuries to patients and healthcare providers over time. Collectively, the ARIMA model statistically accounted for a total of 32% of the variance in healthcare provider injuries. The findings suggested that the CALM program might be effective in reducing the numbers of injuries to healthcare providers. However, data on patient injuries were not available, which was a major limitation of this study. Findings suggest that CALM may be an effective behavioral crisis management option in other healthcare settings. This study may lead to social change by contributing to the literature on behavioral crisis management programs and the reduction of healthcare provider injuries from behavioral crisis situations. Further research is recommended on the effectiveness of CALM in other settings and on the effectiveness of CALM in reducing the rate of patient injuries.

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