Date of Award
Summer 2026
Abstract
Background: Barriers to specialty care access have resulted in emergency departments (ED) operating as temporary psychiatric hold facilities for their communities. Patients boarding in the ED are demonstrated to use a disproportionate percentage of facility resources with minimal benefit to the patient. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement identifies the impact of the healthcare environment on patient outcomes and suggests staff training to foster trauma-informed practice culture (Schall et al., 2020).
Local Problem: High-stress healthcare environments can escalate maladaptive patient behaviors and the use of restrictive interventions. Traditional use of restrictive interventions lacks supportive evidence and contradicts person-centered care goals (Molloy et al., 2024).
Intervention: Sensory strategies use sensory inputs (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, movement) to support emotional self-regulation (Doroud et al., 2024). These strategies apply a shared-decision making model to modify the healthcare environment for individual patient needs.
Methods: A quality improvement project guided by the Plan-Do-Study-Act framework evaluated staff perception of emergency mental health care delivery using survey data and resource inventory. Quantitative measures included survey participation, comfort with mental health care, use of non-pharmacologic care strategies, frequency of meaningful patient engagement, and resources inventory. Qualitative measures included verbal reports and surveyed perception of non-pharmacologic care strategies and suggestions for mental health care improvement.
Results: The survey participation rate was far lower than anticipated at 12%, between providers, nurses, and patient companions. The post-intervention survey suggested a minor increase in mental health care confidence and a minor increase in meaningful patient engagement. Thematic analysis suggested an increase in the perceived responsibility to incorporate holistic care strategies. Resource analysis indicated a 47% increase in use of new intervention strategies.
Conclusion: The intervention was demonstrated to support meaningful patient engagement, staff role empowerment, and opportunities for interprofessional collaboration. The introduction to sensory-based strategies was a positive step towards establishing trauma-informed culture in emergency department settings.
Document Type
Master's Thesis
First Advisor
Deborah Simonton EdD, MS, RN, CNL
Second Advisor
Michelle Hennedy MBA, RN
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
College or School
CHHS
Department or Program
Direct-Entry Master's of Nursing, Clinical Nurse Leadership
Degree Name
Other
Recommended Citation
O'Neill, Jesse, "Introducing Education for Sensory Approaches in Mental Health-Related Emergency Department Visits: A Quality Improvement Project to Enhance Patient-Centered Care" (2026). Master's Theses and Capstones. 2125.
https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis/2125
Included in
Behavioral Medicine Commons, Emergency Medicine Commons, Homeopathy Commons, Interprofessional Education Commons, Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing Commons