Reassurance

People can react with fear or anger, following certain events on the ward, like aggression and absconding.

Any confrontation between patients or between patients and staff can raise anxiety to unbearable levels.

This intervention seeks to reduce the risk of contagion between patients, by allaying anxieties that occur after certain events. As you’re aware, guys, there’s been an incident on the ward. Sarah managed to smash up a window. She sustained an injury to her left arm in the process. She’s been taken to ED. The latest we’ve heard is she is doing ok, she’s engaging with the nurse and she’ll be coming back shortly.

Maintenance have been called and the window is also going to be fixed. We have a few patients that have witnessed the incident. Owen seems to be the most affected. Would you mind please, Rachel, seeing to Owen and making sure he gets some reassurance?

Sure, I’ll go do that right away. Lisa, could you have a look at everyone else and make sure that they’re ok? Sure, of course. Thank you very much, guys.

Hi Owen, I’m aware that you saw what happened a little bit earlier on with Sarah, and I just wanted to come and check in and see how you’re going with everything. Yeah, sure. Pretty full-on, you know. Everything was normal and then she flipped out and the window was broken and she was bleeding and now I’ve got no idea what’s going on, you know. Like, is she ok?

Yeah, look, she’s in another part of the hospital at the moment and she’s just getting her arm checked out. I’ve just heard that she’s doing much better and she’s feeling better. She’s coming back to this unit soon, ok? I just wanted you to know that sometimes when people are not feeling themselves and, usually, when they’re in hospital and in an unfamiliar environment, they sometimes behave in ways that they wouldn’t normally and it can be quite scary. I just wanted to make sure that you were ok.

Yeah, yeah, I’m ok. It’s good to know that she’s ok. If you did feel later on that you’re worried about it, or you were thinking about it and it was playing on your mind, please come and see me. I’ll be here until this evening.

Sure, yeah, thanks, good to know she’s ok.