Violence in healthcare reflects the chaos of a broader work environment. Nurses heighten their expertise in dealing with violence by learning to identify risk factors and warning signs and by applying interventions that could shield their patients and themselves from harm.

The goal of crisis intervention is to return individuals or families to the optimum level of functioning they experienced before the crisis. Nurses need to know assessment and intervention strategies because they are often the first medical personnel to spend enough time with patients to recognize the signs of crisis.

A psychiatric emergency is any disturbance in thoughts, feelings, or actions that causes sufficient personal distress or inflicts sufficient distress on others so that medical care is sought. ED nurses can play a pivotal role in addressing the patient, family, and institutional demands of managing patients with psychiatric illnesses who present to the ED.

Delirium is a medical condition manifested as a disturbance in consciousness and cognition that occurs for a short time. Delirium occurs in around 50% of hospitalized patients 65 years or older. Thirty to 40% of delirium cases among hospitalized patients are preventable. Nurses are frontline observers who can recognize beginning signs of delirium and initiate care.

Hundreds of Americans face a devastating reality when they are harmed, not by a stranger, but by a member of their own family. This continuing education program will provide nurses and social workers with an understanding of family violence and its impact on family members and the family social structure.

Those with substance use, borderline personality disorder, anorexia nervosa, depression, and bipolar disorder have the highest risk for suicide. This 6-contact hour course provides nurses, physicians, social workers, and psychologists with information about the issue of suicide and its prevention strategies.

Inpatient settings are not designed to house patients who are suicidal, and healthcare professionals working in those settings often lack the specialized training to deal with patients at risk for suicide. This activity will address the detection and treatment of suicidal ideation in all medical settings.

Neuropsychiatric disorders have surpassed cardiovascular conditions in causing disability and premature death. Nurses encounter people with mental illness daily through their work in EDs or other healthcare settings. This 5.8-contact hour course provides healthcare providers with the information about severe and persistent mental illnesses, as well as the biological aspects of those illnesses.

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