Reducing Violence Against Nurses: The Violence Prevention Community Meeting

Research was undertaken to validate the efficacy of a new, nurse-led treatment, the Violence Prevention Community Meeting (VPCM), for reducing patient violence on an acute-care inpatient psychiatry unit. Nursing staff members carried event counters and recorded verbal and physical violence as it occurred over the 20-week study. Significant decreases in patient violence were found across day, evening, and night shifts for pre-treatment vs. treatment and pre-treatment vs. post-treatment comparisons. For the day shift, when twice-weekly VPCM treatment took place, violent incidents decreased 89% from pre-treatment to treatment and 57% from pre-treatment to post-treatment.