Long-term effects of a behavioural management technique for nurses on aggressive behaviour in brain-injured patients

Objective: The ABC method (Antecedent events, target Behaviours, Consequent events) is a behavioural management technique developed for nurses. The objective of the present study was to examine the long-term effects of the ABC method on aggressive behaviour in 40 patients with acquired brain injury.

Method: Four aggression outcome measures and a questionnaire about the implementation of the ABC method were filled out by the nursing staff in this longitudinal intervention study.

Results: Contrary to expectations, a significant increase of aggression was found on two aggression measures. A possible explanation may be that the ABC method increased awareness of aggression in the nursing staff. Results of the implementation questionnaire indicated that the ABC method was not part of usual care at the long-term follow-up.

Conclusions: It seems that the quality of the implementation process was insufficient to find an effect of the ABC method on aggression. Suggestions for improving the implementation process are made in this paper.