Effectiveness of Nursing Education to Prevent Inpatient Suicide

Abstract

Background: Inpatient suicide is recognized by The Joint Commission as a preventable sentinel event associated with inadequate patient and environmental assessments. Strategies are needed to meet this Joint Commission requirement.

Method: Community hospital nurses were provided with classes to increase knowledge of inpatient suicide, patient assessments, and appropriate care. Independent pre- and postclass assessments were performed to measure nurses' confidence when talking to patients about suicidal thoughts and to assess nursing knowledge of actions to take when an at-risk patient is identified.

Results: Education significantly increased nurses' confidence talking to patients about three of four confidence measures and increased their knowledge of actions to take when suicidal thoughts are identified. Confidence was lower in nurses with more experience; therefore, experience does not appear to increase confidence, and education is needed.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that a focused in-service education program can increase nurses' confidence to dialogue with patients about suicidal thoughts and nurses' knowledge of actions to prevent inpatient suicide. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2017;48(9):413-419.