Armed Conflicts and Increasing Violence Against Health Care.

The Geneva Conventions remain an invaluable, universal standard.

State Approaches to Stopping Violence Against Health Care Workers.

This Viewpoint examines current state-level approaches to addressing the increased incidence of violence against health care workers, as well as how laws are adapting to protect health care personnel.

Classifying Studies on Workplace Violence for Visiting Nurses Using the Social-Ecological Model: A Scoping Review.

PURPOSE: To prevent workplace violence (WV) against visiting nurses (VNs), understanding the influencing factors is crucial. To better comprehend potential violence prevention strategies, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has presented the four-level social-ecological model (SEM) at the 1) individual, 2) relationship, 3) community, and 4) societal levels. This study aims to quantify WV studies against VNs, examine the influencing factors, identify gaps based on SEM levels, and propose future research and policy directions. DESIGN: A scoping review was conducted following the five-stage protocol proposed by Arksey and O'Malley in 2005. METHODS: Systematic searches, including manual searches, were performed using English and Korean databases. Published journal articles including editorials on WV against VNs were included, irrespective of the publication date. FINDINGS: Sixty journal articles were finally selected. Until the 1990s, most of the literature comprised editorials, with empirical research emerging after the 2000s. Classifying studies by SEM level, many studies have focused on individual (86.7%) and community (66.7%) factors, but fewer have addressed relationship (21.7%) and societal (16.7%) factors. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed that much research has focused on individual-centered training, with gaps in risk assessment tool development, training incorporating relational aspects, standardized protocols, and understanding of the impact of legal rights and policies. This article advocates a comprehensive approach that considers all SEM levels to address WV against VNs. CLINICAL EVIDENCE: The findings confirm a research gap, which suggests the direction for future research and policies. Stakeholders should be urged to implement evidence-based strategies that contribute to safer work environments for VNs.

Violence against healthcare professionals in intensive care units: a systematic review and meta-analysis of frequency, risk factors, interventions, and preventive measures.

BACKGROUND: To assess the frequency, risk factors, consequences, and prevention of violence against healthcare workers in intensive care units. METHODS: PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, EMBASE, Cochrane, and Web of Science were searched for studies on violence against healthcare workers in adult intensive care units. Risk factors, patient characteristics, and implications for healthcare workers were collected. Study quality, bias, and level of evidence were assessed using established tools. RESULTS: Seventy-five studies with 139,533 healthcare workers from 32 countries were included. The overall median frequency of violence was 51% (IQR 37-75%). Up to 97% of healthcare workers experienced verbal violence, and up to 82% were victims of physical violence. Meta-analysis of frequency revealed an average frequency of 31% (95% CI 22-41%) for physical violence, 57% for verbal violence (95% CI 48-66%), and 12% for sexual violence (95% CI 4-23%). Heterogeneity was high according to the I2 statistics. Patients were the most common perpetrators (median 56%), followed by visitors (median 22%). Twenty-two studies reported increased risk ratios of up to 2.3 or odds ratios of up to 22.9 for healthcare workers in the ICU compared to other healthcare workers. Risk factors for experiencing violence included young age, less work experience, and being a nurse. Patients who exhibited violent behavior were often male, older, and physically impaired by drugs. Violence was underreported in up to 80% of cases and associated with higher burnout rates, increased anxiety, and higher turnover intentions. Overall the level of evidence was low. CONCLUSIONS: Workplace violence is frequent and underreported in intensive care units, with potential serious consequences for healthcare workers, calling for heightened awareness, screening, and preventive measures. The potential risk factors for violence should be further investigated. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: The protocol for this review was registered with Prospero on January 15, 2023 (ID CRD42023388449).

The AWARE Framework: A Technology-Driven Approach to Creating a Safer Care Environment.

ABSTRACT: The alarming rise in workplace violence against healthcare workers, particularly nurses, is concerning. Addressing this complex issue requires a systematic, technology-driven approach. The AWARE Framework offers nurse leaders an actionable strategy to create a safer care environment by integrating advanced digital solutions.

Evaluating a Workplace Violence Management Program and Nurses' Confidence in Coping With Patient Aggression.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate nurse confidence in coping with patient aggression after implementing a workplace violence prevention program that includes management and postevent support. BACKGROUND: Patient aggression toward nurses is increasing, leading many healthcare organizations to develop workplace violence prevention programs. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at a large healthcare system in the Midwestern United States. Clinical nurses caring for adult patients across the care continuum ≥51% of the time were invited to participate. RESULTS: In situ simulation plus standard training did not have a significant impact on confidence after controlling for the year education occurred; however, nurses completing training in 2022 had significantly higher confidence than nurses completing training in 2019. Use of the Violence Assessment Tool and participating in a post-control alert debriefing were also associated with significantly higher confidence. CONCLUSION: Factors other than education may influence nurses' confidence in coping with patient aggression.

Why Violence Cannot be Prevented in Healthcare Settings in Türkiye?: A Retrospective Policy Analysis.

Preventive policies have been devised with the aim of curbing health-related violence, and their efficacy is believed to furnish evidence for their continued implementation, thereby enhancing their effectiveness. This study undertakes a retrospective analysis of these policies in the context of Türkiye. A comprehensive examination involved the review of 26 documents, employing a progressive scanning approach for data collection. This methodology encompassed the utilization of gray literature databases (OECD iLibrary and WHO Iris), extensive Google searches, thorough website scans, and consultations with subject-matter experts. Data analysis was meticulously conducted within the framework of the Health Policy Triangle. The findings reveal active participation from diverse stakeholders, including governmental bodies, political entities, professional organizations, and trade unions, in various preventive initiatives aimed at mitigating health-related violence. Notably, the adoption of legislation for health violence prevention, perceived as a paramount achievement, can be attributed to persistent efforts by both the media and other influential actors and stakeholders. These endeavors have sustained the topic's prominence on the policy agenda, positioning it as a promising source for the development of novel violence prevention and management strategies. This study underscores the necessity for a comprehensive investigation into the working conditions, personal rights, and wage policies of healthcare workers, in light of documented factors that frequently precipitate violence. Concomitantly, it advocates for the development of effective mechanisms to address these issues.

Identifying quality indicators to measure workplace violence in healthcare settings: a rapid review.

BACKGROUND: Workplace violence (WPV) in healthcare is a growing challenge posing significant risks to patient care and employee well-being. Existing metrics to measure WPV in healthcare settings often fail to provide decision-makers with an adequate reflection of WPV due to the complexity of the issue. This increases the difficulty for decision-makers to evaluate WPV in healthcare settings and implement interventions that can produce sustained improvements. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify and compile a list of quality indicators that have previously been utilized to measure WPV in healthcare settings. The identified quality indicators serve as tools, providing leadership with the necessary information on the state of WPV within their organization or the impact of WPV prevention interventions. This information provides leadership with a foundation for planning and decision making related to addressing WPV. METHODS: Ovid databases were used to identify articles relevant to violence in healthcare settings, from which 43 publications were included for data extraction. Data extraction produced a total of 229 quality indicators that were sorted into three indicator categories using the Donabedian model: structure, process, and outcome. RESULTS: A majority of the articles (93%) contained at least 1 quality indicator that possessed the potential to be operationalized at an organizational level. In addition, several articles (40%) contained valuable questionnaires or survey instruments for measuring WPV. In total, the rapid review process identified 84 structural quality indicators, 121 process quality indicators, 24 outcome quality indicators, 57 survey-type questions and 17 survey instruments. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a foundation for healthcare organizations to address WPV through systematic approaches informed by quality indicators. The utilization of indicators showed promise for characterizing WPV and measuring the efficacy of interventions. Caution must be exercised to ensure indicators are not discriminatory and are suited to specific organizational needs. While the findings of this review are promising, further investigation is needed to rigorously evaluate existing literature to expand the list of quality indicators for WPV.

Workplace violence in medical radiation science: A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: According to World Health Organization (WHO), workplace violence (WPV) is a significant issue in healthcare. However, no systematic review on WPV in medical radiation science (MRS) has been published yet. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review prevalence of WPV in MRS and its risk factors. METHODS: Electronic scholarly publication databases, namely EBSCOhost/Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature Ultimate, PubMed/Medline, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Wiley Online Library were used for literature search to identify articles about WPV in MRS published over last 10 years as per preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. To facilitate comparisons of the WPV prevalence and relative importance of individual risk factors across the included studies, their reported absolute figures of findings were used to synthesize respective percentages (if not stated). RESULTS: Twelve papers met the selection criteria and were included. This review shows that the WPV prevalence were 69.2-100 % (whole career) and 46.1-83.0 % (last 12 months) in diagnostic radiography, 63.0-84.0 % (whole career) in radiation therapy, 57.6 % in medical sonography (last 12 months), and 46.8 % (last 6 months) in nuclear medicine. The identified WPV risk factors included intoxicated patients, staff stress, feeling of inadequacy resulting in self-protection, more vulnerable practitioners (female, <40 years old and <5-year experience), working in radiation therapy treatment room, emergency department, examination room, general radiography, public hospital, and non-examination and waiting areas, long patient waiting time, night shift, overcrowding environment, unable to meet patients'/family members' expectations, miscommunication, patient handling, inadequate staff and security measures, interaction with colleagues, and lone working. CONCLUSION: The WPV risk in diagnostic radiography and radiation therapy appears extremely high as a result of the aforementioned risk factors. Nevertheless, these study findings should be used with caution due to potential non-response bias. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: A WPV policy should be developed in every clinical workplace. Even if such policy is available, its enforcement including policy awareness boosting, and encouraging incident reporting and support seeking will be essential for reducing WPV. More survey studies based on WHO WPV questionnaire should be conducted for strengthening evidence base.

Change Laboratory intervention for promoting learning about causes and prevention of workplace aggressions in a mental health facility.

AIM: To assess a Change Laboratory (CL) intervention concerning the promotion of learning about the causes and prevention of workplace aggression in a Healthcare Service for Drug and Alcohol Users. BACKGROUND: It is estimated that one fourth of all healthcare professionals worldwide have already experienced some kind of workplace violence. In mental health facilities, aggressions have multiple origins, including moments when physical restraint is applied or situations when the patients' demands are not met. This problem is aggravated in facilities known for their practice of imposing disciplinary measures. Several studies have shown the need to reduce disciplinary means, as well as the importance of health service teams and user participation in designing strategies to prevent aggression. DESIGN: This study employed a qualitative approach with an exploratory and descriptive design. An intervention was conducted in a Healthcare Service for Drug and Alcohol Users, in Brazil. The COREQ guidelines were followed for reporting. METHODS: This study is a qualitative analysis of nine sessions of a CL, which was conducted in 2022 with 12 healthcare professionals, mainly women from the nursing staff. RESULTS: These workers identified the main causes of aggression after a historical and empirical analysis of the nature of the work performed and the contradictions inherent within it. They also recognized the need for cooperative teams prepared to recognize potentially aggressive situations beforehand. CONCLUSIONS: This article brings practical contributions by showing a detailed analysis of how the CL intervention method, using the principle of Transformative Agency Double Stimulation, promotes a sequence of learning actions. The method helped participants to systematically understand the causes of the situations that give rise to workplace violence, examining the goal of the activity as something socially and historically constructed. Likewise, this method helped the professionals to collectively build the key components of a potential prevention program against aggression in the workplace.

Emergency department staff experiences of the Bröset Violence Checklist.

AIM: Work-related violence is a significant problem in healthcare settings and emergency departments are one of the highest at-risk locations. There have been significant challenges in identifying successful risk-mitigation strategies to reduce the incidence and impact of work-related violence in this setting. This research explores the perspectives of clinical staff who routinely use violence risk assessment to provide recommendations for improvements. DESIGN: This qualitative research used interviews of staff who routinely use of the Bröset Violence Checklist in an emergency department. The study was conducted in April 2022. METHOD: Interview transcripts were subjected to Thematic Analysis to explore participants' clinical experiences and judgements about the utility of the Bröset Violence Checklist. RESULTS: Eleven staff participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants described themes about the benefits of routine violence risk assessment and the influence of the subjective opinion of the scorer with respect to the emergency department patient cohort. Four categories of violence risk factors were identified: historical, clinical, behavioural and situational. Situational risks were considered important for tailoring the tool for context-specificity. Limitations of the BVC were identified, with recommendations for context-specific indicators. CONCLUSION: Routine violence risk assessment using the Bröset Violence Checklist was deemed useful for emergency departments, however, it has limitations. IMPACT: This study's findings offer potential solutions to reduce violence affecting front-line workers and practical processes that organizations can apply to increase staff safety. IMPLICATIONS: The findings produced recommendations for future research and development to enhance utility of the Bröset Violence Checklist. REPORTING METHOD: EQUATOR guidelines were adhered to and COREQ was used. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution was involved in this study.

A health system's journey to preventing workplace violence: Use of multidisciplinary teamwork to unify efforts across a health system.

Workplace violence (WPV) is known to threaten the safety of patients and staff. In 2018, a wellness survey showed many employees had not received training on WPV prevention and felt unprepared to manage aggression. The health network's leaders knew they needed to take action. From various multidisciplinary committees, the leaders were able to create a comprehensive WPV prevention program. Some of the highlights of this program include forming a centralized security department, codes of conduct, and crisis response process, adopting tools to predict violence, and providing a range of education. Data from WPV events showed the health network had a statistically significant reduction in WPV events from 2020 to 2021. However, WPV events increased in 2022. This increase in 2022 mirrors national trends in WPV. There are a number of factors that may have impacted this increase. Regardless, the leaders at the health network are dedicated to continuously improving the WPV prevention program. Some of the ongoing projects include improving data collection methods and building a long-term notification for highly violent individuals. This WPV prevention program relies on the commitment of its multidisciplinary team members and focuses on taking care of patients while also prioritizing the wellness of the staff.

Effects of Workplace Violence on Emotional Distress.

The current study assessed the effects of workplace violence (WPV) and fear related to WPV on community mental health (CMH) workers' emotional distress. This cross-sectional study used structural equation modeling (SEM) and comprised participants who were CMH workers in Korea. We used WPV questionnaires and the Korean version of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System® item bank to evaluate emotional distress. SEM data from 763 workers revealed significant positive effects of WPV on anxiety (ß = 0.23, p = 0.009) and anger (ß = 0.26, p = 0.007), and significant positive effects of fear related to WPV on anxiety (ß = 0.21, p = 0.004) and anger (ß = 0.19, p = 0.002). Preventive measures significantly mediated the relationship between WPV and emotional distress and between fear related to WPV and emotional distress. Findings verified the relationship between WPV and workers' emotional distress and the mediating role of preventive measures. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 62(4), 24-32.].

Implementing Evidence-Based Workplace Violence Prevention Education to Support Frontline Staff at Risk for Workplace Violence.

Prior studies assessing workplace violence educational interventions have found positive outcomes including increased frontline staff confidence and reduced restraint utilization. An electronic, evidenced-based educational module was provided to frontline staff across a large healthcare system in response to a gap found during analysis of workplace violence prevention initiatives. This quality improvement project found that education can be feasibly implemented across large healthcare organizations to improve frontline staff vigilance and awareness of workplace violence risks.

Violence against nurses by patients and visitors in the emergency department: An integrative review.

AIM: This integrative review explored violence against emergency nurses by patients/visitors, examining its nature, contributing factors and consequences. DESIGN: Integrative review. DATA SOURCES: Articles were obtained from PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, Web of Science and PsycInfo databases, up until December 2021. REVIEW METHODS: 26 articles were reviewed, evaluating study quality with the Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool and synthesizing conclusions through theme development and coding. RESULTS: This review delves into the issue of violence perpetrated against emergency nurses by patients and visitors. It elucidates three overarching themes: the nature of violence, the contributing factors and the consequences of such acts. CONCLUSION: The findings inform healthcare policy for the development of prevention approaches while identifying research gaps and emphasizing the need for alternative study designs and methodologies. IMPACT: This review has implications for nursing practice, policymaking and research, emphasizing the need for stakeholder engagement and tailored interventions for at-risk emergency nurses. NO PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: This project was an integrative review of the literature therefore no patient or public contribution was necessary. WHAT ALREADY IS KNOWN: Violence by patients and visitors in healthcare settings, especially in emergency departments, has garnered considerable attention. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: This review specifically examines violence-targeting emergency department nurses from patients and visitors, assessing its characteristics, contributing factors and consequences. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE/POLICY: The findings will guide stakeholder engagement in developing interventions to support vulnerable emergency nurses.

Interventions to prevent or manage workplace violence against student nurses during clinical placement: a systematic review protocol.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this review is to investigate the effectiveness of workplace violence management or prevention interventions, including strategies, protocols, and policies, to address violence against, and provide support to, registered nursing students (RNS) following incidents of violence during clinical placement. INTRODUCTION: Workplace violence is a global issue that affects victims' physical and mental health. RNS are especially vulnerable to workplace violence because of their limited work experience and confidence. These students often feel shocked and unprepared when experiencing workplace violence due to limited education and support provided by educational institutions or clinical sites. Workplace violence can lead to anxiety, decreased confidence, and professional attrition. There is a need to systematically synthesize the evidence on workplace violence management and prevention to support nursing students during clinical placement. INCLUSION CRITERIA: The review will consider studies assessing the effectiveness of interventions to address workplace violence or improve support for RNS. Studies that report on educational interventions or pre-clinical placement strategies and measure the preparedness of students will also be considered. Study designs will be limited to quantitative methods that evaluate intervention effectiveness. METHODS: Databases to be searched include MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, Embase (Ovid), Cochrane Central, ERIC (ProQuest), ProQuest Central, ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. Two independent reviewers will screen, review, appraise, and extract data from eligible articles. For data synthesis, studies will be pooled using JBI SUMARI. The GRADE approach for grading the certainty of evidence will be followed and a Summary of Findings will be created. REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42022377318.