Workplace Violence in Healthcare Settings: Risk Factors and Protective Strategies

This article describes the risk factors and protective strategies associated with workplace violence perpetrated by patients and visitors against healthcare workers. Perpetrator risk factors for patients and visitors in healthcare settings include mental health disorders, drug or alcohol use, inability to deal with situational crises, possession of weapons, and being a victim of violence. Worker risk factors are gender, age, years of experience, hours worked, marital status, and previous workplace violence training. Setting and environmental risk factors for experiencing workplace violence include time of day and presence of security cameras. Protective strategies for combating the negative consequences of workplace violence include carrying a telephone, practicing self‐defense, instructing perpetrators to stop being violent, self‐ and social support, and limiting interactions with potential or known perpetrators of violence. Workplace violence is a serious and growing problem that affects all healthcare professionals. Strategies are needed to prevent workplace violence and manage the negative consequences experienced by healthcare workers following violent events.     

Managing nurses through disciplinary power: a Foucauldian analysis of workplace violence

AIMS: This paper describes discipline as a specific technique of power which constitutes, in our view, a form of institutional violence. BACKGROUND: The need to create and maintain safe and healthy work environments for healthcare professionals is well documented. EVALUATION: Foucault's concept of disciplinary power was used to explore institutional violence from a critical perspective. KEY ISSUE: Violence is identified as an important factor in the recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals. Given the shortage of such professionals, there is an urgent need to take a fresh look at their working environments and working conditions. CONCLUSION: Power, surveillance and disciplinary techniques are used at all levels of hospital management to control and contain both human resources and costs. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: By associating common workplace practices with institutional violence, employers who have a policy of zero tolerance toward workplace violence will need to re-examine their current ways of operating.     

Agresiones laborales a profesionales sanitarios e infradeclaración: Caracterización y brechas en el conocimiento para su prevención

Work-related violence against healthcare workers inflicted by healthcare users is a rising multidimensional phenomenon, a cause of concern among those who ensure the safety and health of these professionals. Although different studies indicate high percentages of attacks against healthcare workers, statistics from reports reveal much lower data. Underreporting of occupational violence against healthcare workers is a well-known fact reported in many studies. It is presented as a major obstacle when it comes to proposing adequate preventive measures, because the data on which to base these measures do not correspond to the true incidence of all the assaults that take place. Underreporting also makes it difficult to correctly assess the usefulness of preventive measures implemented. The following article looks at the latest studies carried out on the subject, presenting an overview of the factors accompanying these assaults, as well as the main reasons for this underreporting. It also highlights the lack in the literature of instruments designed to measure underreporting that have undergone a validation process. For all these reasons, this problem requires further study with validated tools to determine the reasons and circumstances that accompany and promote the underreporting of violence against healthcare workers. Knowing these reasons is a preliminary step in the fight against workplace violence and to measure the true magnitude of the problem, to provide the occupational health services with precise data and develop and assess the preventive measures implemented.     

Aggression and burnout in nurses during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study

Workplace violence against nurses, an ever-present problem in the healthcare workplace, has been increasing with COVID-19 and affects occupational health. This study analyzed the consequences of COVID-19 on violence against nurses, identifying its association with burnout, emphasizing the importance of work-related variables. A total of 1013 actively employed nurses in Spain with a mean age of 34.71 years filled out a computer-assisted web interviewing survey. Aggression as a consequence of their work was reported by 73.44% of the nurses. Those most affected were in primary care, and verbal aggression by patients and their families was the most frequent. Nurses who were attacked scored significantly higher in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Furthermore, 83.22% said that COVID-19 was an important factor in the increase in violence toward healthcare workers. Analysis showed that a perceived secure environment was a mediator between the belief that COVID-19 was an influential factor in the increase of violence and the depersonalization dimension of burnout. Increasing perceived security in the work environment among nurses can be effective in promoting well-being, work performance, and commitment to the profession.     

Violence Against Female Student Nurses in the Workplace

Violence, harassment, and bullying in the workplace are not new phenomena. However, the growing epidemic of violence in the health sector workplace is raising great concern among workers, employers, and governmental agencies across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. National and international literature reveals that the prevalence of violence experienced by graduate and undergraduate female nursing students in the college and workplace settings are largely unknown. Moreover, the prevalence of violence is now recognized as a major health priority by the World Health Organization, the International Council of Nurses, and Public Services International. Even so, the number of nursing personnel affected by this problem continues to rise. A modified self-report online survey was used to ascertain the level of violence experienced by nursing students in their clinical placements. One hundred percent of those surveyed had experienced some type of workplace violence and the perpetrators were most often other staff members followed closely by patients. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing Position Statement recommends that all faculty prepare nurses to recognize and prevent all forms of violence in the workplace. This research seeks to develop practical approaches to better understand and prevent this global public health issue.     

Enhancing lives through the development of a community-based participatory action research programme

A community-based participatory action research (PAR) programme that has spanned 5 years is discussed in this article. A primary healthcare philosophy requires research in this practice setting and supports the way healthcare is ideally organized within an integrated team and supported by a community network that includes not only the healthcare workers and service providers but also the community as partners. The principles driving three PAR inquiries are described: the development of a model for prevention of workplace violence; working with clinicians towards improving wound management practice; and management of continence for community-dwelling women living with multiple sclerosis. Participatory action research is a potentially democratic process that is equitable and liberating as participants construct meaning in the process of group discussions. We conclude that the cyclical processes inherent in PAR promote reflection and reconstruction of experiences that can lead to the enhancement of people's lives, either at an individual or community level, or both.     

Creating safe and healing environments: Innovative curriculum to support team members during patient and family escalations in a quaternary care pediatric hospital

Workplace violence in healthcare settings is at a crisis point. Healthcare organization have almost as many serious injuries from violence then all other industries combined (OSHA, 2013; Phillips, 2016). The costs of workplace violence have reached a crescendo provoking a response from several leading healthcare organizations including the Center for Disease Control, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, American Organization of Nurse Executives, American Nurse Association, and the Joint Commission who have all prioritized workplace violence initiatives.To address the issues of workplace violence our hospital embarked on a systematic change to improve the physical and psychological safety of faculty and team members. A multidisciplinary curriculum team developed the Creating Safe and Healing Environment course that introduces concepts to honor the unique demand on team members as they manage the intricacies of caring for others in a hospital setting. The team revisited the complex nature of the relationships and partnerships that are formed in healthcare between the team member, patients and families.The focus of this paper is to discuss the complex issue of workplace violence and review the development of curriculum that focuses the complexities of caring for pediatric patients, introduce the concepts of healing environments and teaches the skills and knowledge needed to co-create safe and healing environments for both care providers and their patients. This paper will also highlight the how a curriculum of this type is informed by the expertise of nursing theories including revisiting Nightengale ideals and incorporating Jean Watson's “Philosophy and Science of Human Caring”.     

护理工作场所暴力研究和对策进展

介绍了工作场所暴力的定义和分类,从护理工作场所暴力的对象及场所、工作场所暴力发生特点、工作场所暴力发生原因、工作场所暴力的负面影响方面综述了护理工作场所暴力研究进展,并提出了应对工作场所暴力的措施。     

Who would want to be a nurse? Violence in the workplace – a factor in recruitment and retention

In a climate of a declining nursing workforce where violence and hostility is a part of the day-to-day lives of most nurses, it is timely to name violence as a major factor in the recruitment and retention of registered nurses in the health system. Workplace violence takes many forms such as aggression, harassment, bullying, intimidation and assault. Violent acts are perpetrated against nurses from various quarters including patients, relatives, other nurses and other professional groups. Research suggests that nurse managers are implicated in workplace violence and bullying. Furthermore, there may be a direct link between episodes of violence and aggression towards nurses and sick leave, burnout and poor recruitment and retention rates. This paper explores what is known about workplace violence as it affects nurses, and calls for managerial support and policy to act to improve work environments for all nurses.     

Pediatric emergency nurses’ workplace violence experiences: A qualitative study

IntroductionWorkplace violence is a crucial problem experienced by health workers who serve at the emergency service. The identification of emergency nurses’ workplace experiences is of importance to the prevention of violence and the development of solutions.PurposeThis study was performed to identify the workplace violence experiences of the nurses working for the pediatric emergency units.MethodA total of 20 nurses who experienced violence at the emergency service participated in the study that was conducted as qualitative research. The data were collected with the semi-structured interview form and were evaluated by using thematic analysis.ResultsFive themes, namely, “the characteristics of violence”, “the causes of violence”, “the approach during/after the violence”, “the consequences of the violence for the person”, and the “consequences of the violence for the profession”, were identified. Nurses stated that they often experienced verbal violence due to patient relatives’ unmet expectations, the failure of patient relatives to understand treatments and practices, and the heavy workload, they endeavored to eliminate violence by trying to communicate with perpetrators of the violence, calling the security staff, and reporting the violence to their managers, and they were individually and professionally affected by the violence.ConclusionNurses are negatively affected by workplace violence. Pediatric emergency nurses should be supported with training programs and policies to be developed for the prevention and solution of violence.     

Promoting domestic violence education for nurses

Domestic violence is one of the major health problems facing families today. Women in rural areas often are an overlooked population at high risk for this problem. Domestic violence is a concern for women, who may be patients or healthcare workers. Teaching about domestic violence is a very sensitive issue because it is often difficult for the abused to admit or confront that she is being abused. The authors developed an effective interactive workshop to teach nurses how to assess and intervene with women who have experienced domestic violence.     

Workplace violence: A qualitative study drawing on the perspectives of UK nursing students

BackgroundWorkplace violence (WV) remains problematic and highly prevalent in healthcare with nursing students being particularly vulnerable.AimTo investigate the impact of WV from the perspective of nursing students.MethodsA qualitative design was employed. A total of 444 nursing students in the UK participated in the study.FindingsThe qualitative data were analysed, coded and three main themes emerged; (1) violence culture in nursing, (2) tolerating violence and (3) the impact of violence.DiscussionThe undesirable truth is each year nearly more than half of the students face WV in environments where such a behaviour becomes culturally embedded and passed between generations of nurses. This process of normalisation requires intervention that will break this cycle to enable more appropriate workplace behaviours to flourish.ConclusionThe impact of WV can be extremely destructive for the individual, the profession and ultimately patient care with large numbers choosing to leave at a time when there is a national shortage of qualified staff.     

A cross‐sectional examination of factors associated with compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue across healthcare workers in an academic medical centre

Compassion satisfaction (CS) among healthcare professionals is a sense of gratification derived from caring for their suffering patients. In contrast, compassion fatigue, often a consequence of burnout (BO) and secondary traumatic stress (STS), is detrimental to healthcare professionals’ productivity and patient care. While several studies have examined CS, BO, and STS among healthcare professionals, the majority have assessed samples in specific disciplines. However, the comparative differences in these factors by discipline or work setting are not well known. The aims of this study were to examine the differences in CS, BO, and STS by discipline and work setting, and to assess demographic, work‐related, and behavioural factors associated with these outcomes. An electronic survey was administered (N = 764) at a large academic medical centre in the southeast United States. Questions elicited demographic variables, work‐related factors, behavioural/lifestyle factors, experience with workplace violence, and the Professional Quality of Life Scale. Findings of the study determined that the rates of CS, BO, and STS vary across healthcare disciplines and work settings. Demographic, work‐related, behavioural, and work setting (i.e., experience of workplace violence) factors were differentially associated with experiences of CS, BO, and STS. The results of the study suggest two potential areas for research, specifically workplace violence and sleep quality as a means of further understanding reduced CS and increased BO and STS among healthcare workers. These findings have important implications for future research and policy interventions to enhance healthcare workers’ health and safety.     

护士工作场所暴力的现状调查与分析

目的:调查护士工作场所暴力水平并分析原因,为今后干预护士工作场所暴力提供依据。方法:采用医院工作场所暴力调查量表对广州市5家三级甲等医院的护士进行调查。结果:60.8%的护士在过去一年中遭受过工作场所暴力,其中,辱骂、威胁、语言性骚扰、躯体攻击(无损伤)、躯体攻击(轻度损伤)、躯体攻击(明显损伤)、性袭击的发生率分别是57%、39%、13.1%、8.8%、3.7%、1%、2.5%。80.2%的急诊科护士在过去一年中遭受过工作场所暴力,45%在过去一年中遭受过工作场所暴力。结论:护士遭受高水平工作场所暴力,暴力的形式主要是非身体暴力,急诊科护士较非急诊科护士遭受更多工作场所暴力。     

Frequency of violence towards healthcare workers in the United States’ inpatient psychiatric hospitals: A systematic review of literature

The purpose of this systematic review is to determine the frequency of violent or aggressive behaviour towards healthcare workers in inpatient psychiatric settings in the United States. To achieve this aim, five databases were searched to find English‐language quantitative studies reporting prevalence or incidence data of violence or aggression directed towards staff members in inpatient psychiatric settings. No limitations were set based on publication date, and intervention studies were included only if baseline data were provided. Of 335 total studies found, 38 full‐text articles were suitable for full‐text analysis based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and 14 were included in the final review. Years of data collection ranged from 1986 to 2018, and a range of psychiatric facilities were represented, from small, private hospital units to large forensic institutions. Researchers utilized surveys, real‐time incident reporting tools, and government databases, or a combination of strategies, to collect data related to workers’ experiences on the job. Included research indicates that workplace violence in the U.S. inpatient psychiatric setting is a widespread problem, with 25–85% of survey respondents reporting an incident of physical aggression within the year prior to survey, and statewide workers’ compensation findings indicating 2–7 claims due to assault per 100 000 employee hours. There are substantial differences between findings based on measurement strategy, making it difficult to arrive at a single estimate of prevalence nationally. As management of this persistent problem receives continued attention from stakeholders, it becomes increasingly important to define and measure the problem with the most appropriate tools.     

护理人员遭受工作场所暴力情况的调查与分析

目的探讨在医院中护理人员遭受工作场所暴力的流行特征及危险因素。方法根据WHO关于医院工作场所暴力的定义,采用自行设计问卷,调查我市两所三级甲等医院中护理人员在2004年4月~2005年4月遭受工作场所暴力的情况。结果420名被调查者中,1年内有234名遭受过工作场所暴力,发生率为55.71%,其中以心理暴力为主(40.24%)。媒体导向(48.29%)、肇事者酗酒(38.89%)、患者病情无好转或自认为无好转(35.47%),是发生医院工作场所暴力的主要原因。结论护理人员中医院工作场所暴力的发生率较高,需针对医院特点开展工作场所暴力防范与应对教育,提高护士应对各种医院工作场所暴力的能力和整体素质。     

Individual and organizational risk factors of work‐related violence in the Danish elder care

Scand J Caring Sci; 2010; 24; 332–340
Individual and organizational risk factors of work‐related violence in the Danish elder care Aim: The aim of this study was to explore individual and organizational risk factors of exposure to violence in the Elder Care Sector. Methods: A questionnaire study conducted among 8134 health‐care workers in the elder care in 36 municipalities was carried out between October 2004 and May 2005. Participation in the study was voluntary and data were treated confidentially. Results: Individual factors such as low age and seniority seemed to increase the risk of violence. Type of institution (nursing homes), occupation (health care assistants), shift‐work, evening or night work, frequent physical contact with clients, higher emotional demands, a lower level of involvement at the workplace, lower leadership quality, and more role conflicts increased the risk of work‐related violence. On the other hand, the study also demonstrated that the least violence was found at workplaces with high leadership quality, no role conflicts and high involvement in the workplace. Study strengths and limitations: The strengths of the study are that it is a large representative study consisting of Danish elder care workers in 36 municipalities and has a high response rate. A limitation is that the study is cross‐sectional making it impossible to decide the direction of causal relationships. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that there is a possibility of reducing the prevalence of violence towards care‐workers in the elder care if policies and resources to improve the working environment are implemented.