Suicide prevention training is commonly used to equip health professionals such as Emergency Department (ED) clinicians to identify, assess and care for people who present in suicidal distress. Previous research has found that ED clinicians experience improvements in confidence, knowledge and attitudinal change following training attendance (Zarska et al., 2022). However, for training to be effective, it must also translate or generalise into behavioural changes within the workplace. Research conducted in Australia with people with lived experiences of presenting to ED in suicidal distress has found that care received during an ED admission is often experienced as unsatisfactory and lacking in compassion and empathy (Robinson & Bailey, 2022; Rosebrock, 2022). In particular, stigmatising attitudes of healthcare workers, lack of knowledge, insensitive responses to distress, insufficient assessments and lengthy wait times were found to impact people’s willingness to return to EDs or attend follow-up appointments in the future (Rosebrock, 2022). As such, appropriate and compassionate healthcare experiences must be provided during their ED admission.
The purpose of evaluating suicide prevention programs is to determine whether they are effective by measuring the learner's reaction to the training and changes in knowledge, skills and behaviour (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006). Proctor et al. (2011) argue that successful program implementation, such as a suicide prevention course, precedes good outcomes. As such, evaluating suicide prevention courses to determine their effectiveness may contribute to enhanced care and a tomorrow where fewer lives are lost to suicide. There is limited research examining whether ED clinicians behave differently within interactions with people in suicidal distress following their attendance at suicide prevention training. This presentation will highlight the key findings from a qualitative study involving ED nurses (n=10) from hospitals in South-East Queensland who had completed a suicide prevention program called Suicide Risk Assessment and Management in Emergency Departments (SRAM-ED). The SRAM-ED course was co-designed with lived experience representatives. The study results showed that half the participants could apply the training objectives, and the other half felt unable to do so. Training appeared to increase confidence to ask about suicide, but fear and discomfort about suicide-related conversations persisted even after attending training. Key themes and implications for future suicide prevention training design and implementation will be discussed.