Beyond Zero Tolerance: a varied approach to workplace violence.

Violence in the health- and social-care workplace remains unexplored, with a knowledge base which is often ambiguous or incomplete. However, the issue has attracted increasing attention over the last two decades as indicated by an expanding range of policy initiatives and growing research literature. Additionally, a proliferation of training programmes for healthcare staff has appeared. This paper will explore the reasons for an observed tendency for interventions to focus on training as the primary response, which suggests a misperception of the problem of violence as principally a function of interpersonal conflict. It argues that a radical cultural shift is needed, which recognises the organizational and societal roots of violence, and that adopts and applies the principles of a public health approach.

Zero in on violence.

THE RECOGNITION of violence in the healthcare workplace as a potential threat to the welfare of nurses has focused largely on the prevention of violence. However, it is now accepted that although violence may be reduced, it will not be eliminated ( Bowie 1996 ), and interest has grown in how nurses and other healthcare workers exposed to assault, verbal abuse or other forms of violence can be supported.

Re-framing the problem of workplace violence directed towards nurses in mental health services in the UK: a work in progress.

BACKGROUND: Research consistently suggests nurses working in mental health settings are more likely to be assaulted than nurses in other settings. AIMS: Belated recognition of the issue in terms of social policy (Elston et al. 2006) has been accompanied by an as yet unexamined contest between conflicting 'frames' of the problem, which this paper seeks to make transparent. METHOD: Frame analysis. RESULTS: Two distinct 'master' frames are discussed: the 'individualizing' and the 'co-creationist'. CONCLUSIONS: The influence of these frames has influenced the nature of responses to the problem but the recent dominance of the individualizing frame is being challenged by the emergence, or perhaps re-emergence, of co-creationism.