Enhancing healthcare providers’ diagnostic and intervention skills to deal with suicidal patients at emergency departments in the Palestinian hospitals: a quasi experimental study

BACKGROUND: Suicide cases in Palestine continue to record a remarkable annual increase, but we lack a comprehensive verified national data collection system of suicide and it is expected that real numbers of attempted/suicide in Palestine are higher because not all suicide or attempted suicide cases are reported. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a time-limited training intervention in enhancing healthcare providers’ diagnostic and intervention skills to deal with suicidal patients who visit emergency departments in Palestinian hospitals. METHODS: The sample consisted of 43 healthcare providers who work in public hospitals in the northern of the West Bank of Palestine, ranging from 25 to 56 years, involving 36 males and 7 females. A one-group quasi-experimental design was used, in which the experimental group received a training program to enhance healthcare providers’ diagnostic and intervention skills to deal with suicidal ideations and attempts, the intervention lasted for 8 weeks, with 1 session per week. The performance of the experimental group was tested before and after the intervention. RESULTS: Our findings revealed the effectiveness of the training intervention in enhancing participants’ suicide assessment, diagnosis, and self-care skills. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that a brief and carefully developed training intervention can potentially change healthcare providers’ perceptions and behaviors toward suicide with a possible impact on clinical care therein.