Date of Conferral

3-27-2025

Date of Award

March 2025

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Dr. Deborah Lewis

Abstract

The staff education project aimed to address the gap in practice regarding the management of aggression in psychiatric patients at a local mental health clinic. Approximately 40% of the clinic’s patient population exhibited aggressive behaviors, including verbal threats, and physical altercations. However, nurses primarily relied on pharmacological interventions and physical restraints to manage these behaviors, which failed to address underlying causes, such as psychiatric conditions and environmental stressors. A review of the literature demonstrated strong evidence supporting the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions, with studies highlighting how structured training programs significantly reduced aggression, and improved patient and staff outcomes. The project sought to improve nurses’ knowledge on managing aggression using non-pharmacological interventions when providing care for patients in a mental health clinic. The education program used a pretest–posttest design and was created using resources from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to include a comprehensive module on effective interventions. Results demonstrated a significant improvement in knowledge, with mean pretest scores of 68% (SD = 3.5) increasing to a mean posttest score of 90.5% (SD = 2.8) after intervention. A paired t test confirmed statistically significant improvements in knowledge (t = 10.57, p < .001). The findings highlight the importance of structured staff education programs to integrate evidence-based, non-pharmacological interventions into routine care, fostering positive social change in healthcare practices.

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