The effects of skill-based team learning curriculum in workplace violence prevention for nurses

Abstract Background Workplace violence, faced by health care workers, is a severe occupational safety and health hazard, and has received global attentions in research and in practice. The aim of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a skill-based team learning curriculum of violence prevention for clinical nurses. Methods 78 clinical nurses were purposively selected including 41 nurses of treatment group, and 37 nurses of control group. Each treatment group received the training curriculum which included three sessions: (1) 50-minutes workplace violence lecture and video to illustrate the various workplace violence situations, (2) 50-minute team group discussion to design effective violence prevention skills for a hospital violence situation, (3) 60-minute interactive skills training curriculum focusing on role play, rehearsal and feedback. The control group only received a self-learning violence prevention manual. Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) model was used to examine the program effects. Results The results for the GEE statistics indicated a significant time effect. The pretest-posttest and after the posttest results that treatment group showed significant improvement in preventive skills (β = 1.828, β=1.330; p<0.001) and self-efficacy(β = 4.123, β=5.363; p<0.001) compared to the control group. Besides, the experimental group significantly decreased incidents of verbal violence (β=-1.140, p < 0.05) compared to the control group. Conclusions The study showed integration of skill-based teamwork learning in clinical nursing training provides an additional venue to prevent and reduce workplace violence. This shall be a feasible module and significant reference in junior or pre-service health care workers training in the future. Key messages The study demonstrates the feasibility of implementing the team learning curriculum for clinical nurses. The present study provides empirical evidence of the skill-based team learning training curriculum in workplace violence program for clinical nurses.