TY - JOUR
T1 - Role of security guards in Code Black events in medical and surgical settings
T2 - A retrospective chart audit
AU - Muir-Cochrane, Eimear
AU - Muller, Amanda
AU - Fu, Yanfen
AU - Oster, Candice
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - The prevalence of security guards in health care settings is growing worldwide. There is a need to explore and understand their role and actions to inform policy and training and support least restrictive practices in health care. The aim of this study was to conduct a retrospective chart audit of security guard logs to investigate security guard involvement in Code Blacks, called in emergency situations of personal threats including patient and/or visitor violence, in medical and surgical wards in a large metropolitan health network in South Australia. Security guards attended 1664 Code Blacks (0.63% of admissions) over the 2.5-year study period. Events were more frequently reported in medical than surgical wards. The most common reasons for security guard attendance were patients threatening/harming staff and patients threatening/harming themselves. The most frequent security guard actions were “Attend only/standby,” “Physical restraint,” and “Patient located and returned to the ward.” The most frequent outcomes were physical restraint, chemical restraint, and de-escalation respectively. Results highlight the imperative that health services maintain and increase efforts to support least restrictive practice through policy directives and staff training.
AB - The prevalence of security guards in health care settings is growing worldwide. There is a need to explore and understand their role and actions to inform policy and training and support least restrictive practices in health care. The aim of this study was to conduct a retrospective chart audit of security guard logs to investigate security guard involvement in Code Blacks, called in emergency situations of personal threats including patient and/or visitor violence, in medical and surgical wards in a large metropolitan health network in South Australia. Security guards attended 1664 Code Blacks (0.63% of admissions) over the 2.5-year study period. Events were more frequently reported in medical than surgical wards. The most common reasons for security guard attendance were patients threatening/harming staff and patients threatening/harming themselves. The most frequent security guard actions were “Attend only/standby,” “Physical restraint,” and “Patient located and returned to the ward.” The most frequent outcomes were physical restraint, chemical restraint, and de-escalation respectively. Results highlight the imperative that health services maintain and increase efforts to support least restrictive practice through policy directives and staff training.
KW - restraint
KW - security guard
KW - tertiary care centers
KW - violence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85085563691&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/nhs.12725
DO - 10.1111/nhs.12725
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85085563691
SN - 1441-0745
VL - 22
SP - 758
EP - 768
JO - Nursing and Health Sciences
JF - Nursing and Health Sciences
IS - 3
ER -