The Patient Care Paradox: An Interprofessional Qualitative Study of Agitated Patient Care in the Emergency Department

Abstract

The experience of ED staff members while caring for agitated patients is complex and multidimensional. We identified issues that coalesced into four tiers of healthcare delivery at the individual, team, environment, and system levels. Future research is needed to determine applicability of our findings across institutions to build a comprehensive framework for ED agitated patient care.