Nursing Commons^™

Children With Developmental Disabilities At A Pediatric Hospital: Staff Education To Prevent And Manage Challenging Behaviors, Norah Johnson, Joel Lashley, Alice Stoneck, Annette Bonjour

Norah L Johnson

Children with developmental disabilities may get frustrated in unpredictable hospital environments. Frustration may escalate to challenging behaviors, which are a safety concern and may contribute to staff and patient injuries, use of restraints, and procedure delay or cancelations. The purpose of this article was to describe a pilot staff education program on preventing and managing challenging behaviors of children with developmental disabilities at a pediatric hospital. The 2-hour-long education (1 hour on-line and 1 hour instructor led) content focused on family-centered care and communication skills, including verbal judo™ modified for use in the health care setting. Participants in the instructor-led …