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Predicting inpatient violence in acute psychiatric wards using the Brøset‐Violence‐Checklist: a multicentre prospective cohort study
Author(s) -
ABDERHALDEN C.,
NEEDHAM I.,
MISEREZ B.,
ALMVIK R.,
DASSEN T.,
HAUG H.J.,
FISCHER J. E.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1365-2850
pISSN - 1351-0126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2850.2004.00733.x
Subject(s) - norwegian , medicine , checklist , psychiatry , prospective cohort study , poison control , occupational safety and health , injury prevention , emergency medicine , psychology , philosophy , linguistics , pathology , cognitive psychology
The Norwegian Brøset‐Violence‐Checklist (BVC) is one of the few instruments that is suitable for short‐term prediction of violence of psychiatric inpatients by nursing staff in routine care. The instrument assesses the presence or absence of six behaviours or states frequently observed before a violent incident. We conducted a study to elucidate whether the predictive properties of the BVC are retained in other psychiatric settings than the original north‐Norwegian validation dataset. During their admission period, 219 consecutive patients admitted to six acute psychiatric wards were assessed as to the risk for attack using a German version of the BVC (BVC‐G). Data on preventive measures were concurrently collected. Aggressive incidents were registered using an instrument equivalent to the Staff Observation of Aggression Scale (SOAS‐R). Fourteen attacks towards staff were observed with incident severity ranging from 5 to 18 of a possible 22 points. BVC‐G sensitivity was 64.3%, the specificity 93.9%, the positive predictive value 11.1%, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.88. In some false positive cases intense preventive measures had been implemented. The predictive accuracy of the BVC‐G proved consistent with the Norwegian original.