Behaviours of concern in the context of occupational violence and aggression have been investigated as an area of alarm in health care (The 2004 Victorian Taskforce on Violence in Nursing. Department of Human Services (DHS)).
The definition of Behaviours of Concern from DHS (Victoria), refers to any incident in which staff are threatened, abused, or assaulted arising from situations involved in the course of their employment.
Dr Julia Jones reported in the workshop, “Violence and Aggression in Renal Units” at the 36th EDTNA/ERCA conference, was that haemodialysis was an area where Behaviours of Concern were increasing in the United Kingdom.
In August 2008, we conducted a survey of two hundred and sixty Victorian renal nurses attending a seminar day. The survey was aimed at finding whether the incidence of behaviours of concern were prevalent in our own renal areas, what appeared to be triggers to these behaviours and what, if any, supports or mechanisms were in place to help the patient and staff. Seventy eight per cent returned their survey and eighty five percent of the respondents reported that in the preceding twelve months, they had been involved in incidents where patients, or visitors had displayed concerning behaviours.
Surprisingly, the data collated in our survey, demonstrated similarities with the data from Dr Jones.
Our aim in this paper is to report the findings from the survey, to identify triggers to behaviours of concern, how to avoid or minimise them, and to offer a ‘tool kit’ to manage these behaviours.