Internet Training for Nurse Aides to Prevent Resident Aggression

Abstract

Objectives-Evaluate Internet training to help Nurse Aides decrease resident aggression.Design-Randomized treatment and control design; pre-post assessment.Setting-The study was conducted entirely on the Internet. Participants-Nurse Aides; N=62Intervention-Internet based interactive training using video modeling and mastery learning instructional design.Measurements-Video situations testing and assessment of psycho-social constructs associated with behavior change; follow-up interviews with a sample of treatment participants.Results-MANCOVA analysis showed positive results (p=.001) for knowledge, attitudes, self efficacy, and behavioral intention, with large effect sizes; it was well received by the users.Conclusions-Interactive training is an effective approach to shaping appropriate staff reactions to aggressive resident behaviors. The training can effectively be delivered on the Internet. In this research, it was both valued and well received by study participants.Keywords resident aggression; training; Internet; Nurse Aides; long term care; interactive Violence and assaults by residents against staff or other residents in the long-term care system are a major public health concern 1-5 . Direct care workers in long-term care facilities (LTCs) are the workers at highest risk to suffer from workplace violence 6 (e.g., grabs, chokes, hair pulls, kicks, hits, bites, etc,) and injury due to interactions with residents. Aggressive behavior in the form of threats, harassment, and assaults by residents often occurs daily in LTCs and is widely accepted as part of the job by Nurse Aides (NAs) 4,7-10 . Aggressive resident behaviors can take a physical and emotional toll on both NAs and residents 8,11 , impacting the quality of care provided 4 , and potentially making workers more prone to aggressive responses towards residents 12,13 . The frequency of assaults has been poorly documented, but in a recent study, 138 NAs reported an average of 4.69 assaults during 80 hours of work with a range of 0-67 assaults 14 . Morgan, Stewart, D'Arcy, Forbes, and Lawson 15 reported that 73.4% of NAs in Conflict of interest: None of the authors has a conflict of interest related to this research.Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. An interactive multimedia (IMM) training approach that links video presentations with the interactive capabilities of computers has the potential to solve many of these problems 42,43 . IMM programs potentially can blend video modeling vignettes and testimonials, graphics and text, and test questions into a criterion-referenced mastery learning ins...

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