Nurse Observation

This reflection is based on my observations of the need for of effective communication skills and knowledge of nurses regarding the management of aggression in elderly patients with dementia. Clinician need to be equipped with seclusion, medication and de-escalation skills to be able to manage patient aggressive behaviours safely. I have chosen these particular observations after realising how fundamental they are in implementation aggressive behaviour management strategies in patients. While working in mental health I have observed how effective it is to communicate with a patient as a way of de-escalation during verbal and physical aggression incidents. Ford, Byrt, Dooher, & ebrary (2010) point out that it is imperative for health professionals
A person centred approach should be implemented so as to understand the patient as an individual for effecting targeted interventions to be put in place. According to Krishnamoorthy and Anderson (2011) staff training programmes assist nurses in identifying causes of behaviours and developing of patient management plans. During the development of my learning plan I discovered that I learnt a lot from purposefully observing senior nursing staff as they dealt with aggressive patients. Valuable information about the role of medications in aggression was made available to me after consultation with the hospital pharmacist. I was also able to explore different research article on the Notre Dame Library online resource databases about management of aggression in dementia and I gained a lot of evidence based practice information that will be essential in improving my aggression management
Managing aggression can be very emotionally and physically challenging to the health care workers. Notably according to Lim (2011) there are consequential effects noted such as negative psychological and emotional responses and job dissatisfaction that can lead to poor quality of care. Nurses may continue to experience violence but they still have a duty of care to ensure the patients safety and others is maintained hence, the importance of engaging in staff training and having clinical supervision sessions. Within health care settings, staff can participate in educational drills and this also enhances the confidence of individuals in the prompt decision making when faced with aggressive patients. External organisations such Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory services (DBMAS) are available to provide support for staff and carers about how to deal with