A Qualitative Pilot Study

Introduction
The prevention of patient-to-patient assault in an inpatient psychiatric unit is essential for the safety of patients and staff (Perez, 2014). The aim of this quantitative pilot study is to decrease patient-on-patient assaults which, in the long run, may improve patient safety during hospitalization (Staggs, 2015). This chapter discusses the study design and population plan and describes procedures for implementing the project, data collection, data analysis, the institutional review board (IRB) process, and challenges that may occur with initiating the quality improvement project.
Design
The design of this project is a quasi-experimental pre- and post-test quantitative pilot quality improvement project. Participants if this

Organizational readiness for improvement or change in health care settings is vital for the successful implementation of new programs and health care practices (Hall & Roussell, 2014). After detailed conversations with the unit manager and registered nurses, it is clear there is a need for interventions targeted toward patient-to-patient assaults, as safety is a top priority for the patients in the unit. In addition, staff members state that there has been an increase in the number of patient-to-patient assaults in the inpatient psychiatric unit (2–3 incidents per month), and this poses a threat to staff and patient safety. In Hall and Roussel (2014), states that healthcare facilities must be viewed as a high-risk environment and available financial and human resources must be available to address safety issues and concerns (Wieczorek, Marent, Osrecki, Dorner, & Dür, 2015). The unit manager volunteered to provide assistance for the implementation of the program and worked with the doctoral student on scheduling a presentation of education/teaching interventions for staff members. Lastly, the unit manager provided a large conference room within the unit to use for teaching the registered

Prior to implementation of the quality project, a signed consent will be obtained from the registered nurses, and then a 10-point questionnaire will be utilized to assess knowledge pre the education and post-education, with additional questions to assess knowledge gained. To protect confidentiality, no personal identifier will be used for any of the participants. All completed questionnaires will be stored in a locked cabinet in my office and data will be recorded on my personal computer with security access ensured. Data will be kept for three years after