If you can't stand the heat?

Board: Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Theme: Violence and Aggression

Contact: n/a

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was awarded funding for a two-part project based around violence and aggression. A one-day training course If you can’t stand the heat? on the issue of verbal and non-verbal abuse and a follow up poster and leaflet to supplement the course.

The one-day training programme was supported by a comprehensive literature review which was carried by Brodie Paterson and colleagues at Stirling University and formed the basis for the course.

The course itself was interactive and informal with an emphasis on group work and staff participation to make sure it met best practice guidance. In partnership with Theatre Nemo a DVD of scenarios has been created around verbal and non-verbal abuse. This enabled staff to identify and discuss sensitive issues around their experiences of coping and dealing with this type of abuse.

The programme was delivered between February and March 2010, on five occasions, to ninety-five members of staff.

The second part of the project developed a poster and leaflet to supplement the one-day training course. The poster was chosen after the directorate ran a poster competition and the winning entry was chosen by the delegates at the National Forensic Carer’s Conference in October 2009. The poster is now strategically placed throughout the directorate.

The leaflet was developed from a literature review carried out by Dr. Brodie Paterson and Professor Ryan Denis at Stirling University.

Positives:

There has been a rise in reporting of verbal and non-verbal abuse. Greater Glasgow and Clyde are also scheduled to survey the staff again in December 2010 for the nine month evaluation review. Once this is completed they hope to publish their findings in one of the national nursing journals.

Challenges:

No major issues although issues that did arise were around time, commitment and communication.

Suitable for national roll out:

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde believe the project would be suitable for national roll out with some small modifications
Due to the diversity of the disciplines within the course participants the learning within this programme could be easily replicated.