Clinician confidence in coping with patient aggression: Assessment and enhancement.

Abstract

Training programs intended to enhance clinician confidence in coping with patient aggression have been only cursorily researched-In previous studies researchers have typically used ad hoc instrumentation and have omitted control conditions and follow-up assessment. This investigation included psychometric development of an instrument to assess self-attributed clinician confidence in coping with patient aggression, and a comparison of groups who did and who did not undergo training. Although untrained groups showed no change in confidence over time. trained groups reported substantial pretest/postlcst gains in confidence that were maintained during an 18-month follow-up period. Implications of this study for subsequent research and training are discussed.

Training Staff in an Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Unit in Positive Approaches to Managing Aggressive and Harmful Behaviour: Does it Improve Confidence and Knowledge?

“…These findings are in line with those of other studies (Allen & Tynan, 2000;Baker & Bissmire, 2000;Gallon & McDonnell, 2000;Nunno et al, 2003). However, Brookes (1988), in a study on C&R in use in a prison setting, found that confidence levels maintained over an 18-month period*/as did Thackrey (1987) in a study with prison staff and mental health staff, again over an 18-month period. This was not found to be the case in the present study.…”

“…The scale was developed by Thackrey (1987) for use in psychiatric settings and was originally named the Confidence in Coping with Patient Aggression Instrument. Thackrey had found good internal consistency in the measure (Cronbach alpha, 0.92).…”

Staff confidence in dealing with aggressive patients: A benchmarking exercise

“…Following a search of the literature a 10‐item self‐report questionnaire developed by Thackrey (1987) was selected as suitable for measuring confidence in coping with patient aggression. Permission was sought and gained from Thackrey to use the questions.…”

“…Items in the questionnaire address the domains of ability, preparation, comfort in safety, and effectiveness in intervening psychologically and physically with aggressive patients for self‐preservation and therapeutic intervention. A high degree of internal consistency and precision has been reported in respect of these items (Thackrey, 1987). Respondents were asked to indicate their degree of confidence to the questions (see Table 1) using a five point Likert scale with verbal descriptors at each end, e.g.…”

Sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of Confidence in Managing Patient Aggression Scale on de‐escalating behaviour

“…The easy to handle self‐assessment using the Confidence in Managing Patient Aggression Scale (10 items, five‐point Likert Scale) (Thackrey 1987) may be a good alternative. First, the confidence in the ability to work with aggressive patients is considered a valuable outcome (Martin & Daffern 2006).…”