Workplace Violence
Workplace violence refers to physical threats, verbal abuse, and homicide against a health care employee. Many employers have no authority to implement workplace violence programs but have guidelines that help detect workplaces with serious hazards. Some states in the United States have developed programs and advanced laws for penalties of offenders convicted of harassing a nurse (Kennedy & Kennedy-Baker, 2020). Workplace violence has continued to increase and recur as a severe issue in most parts of Europe and the United States. Therefore, intervention measures at the national level for such types of violence are necessary.
Types of Workplace Violence in Healthcare Organization
There are various types of workplace violence. The categories include type I, type II, type III, and Type IV. Type I violence involves violent acts from people who have no relationship with the workplace, and they may be robbers (Robinson, 2018). Type II refers to the violent actions of customers, patients, students, or other people who get services from the organization towards the healthcare workers. Type III involves violent acts against co-workers, managers, or former leaders of a healthcare center. Lastly, type IV describes violence from an individual who has a personal relationship with the station’s employee. Type IV is a frequent form of violence in a healthcare facility.
Causes and Prevalence of Violence in Healthcare
Incidences of workplace violence in the United States continue to increase. Over 2 million US workers have experienced violence in their workstations. Deaths have also occurred due to violence and accounted for about 17% of the total violence in 2016 (National Nurses United, 2019). However, according to the National Nurses United (2019), about 25% of cases of workplace violence are unreported.
Different settings of health care organizations experience different prevalent levels of violence. Hospitals that have long waiting times and dissatisfaction with services agitate patients who resort to violence. Short staffing is increasingly becoming a significant problem in hospitals, as evidenced by reports from over 30% of understaffing nurses is their most important risk (Kuter et al., 2021).
The emergency department is one of the care settings that report most cases of workplace violence. A survey of emergency nurses’ experiences and perceptions of violence in emergency settings reported a high prevalence of workplace violence while also showing an increase in cases from the previous reports (as cited in Lakatos et al., 2019). These findings are confirmed by Kennedy and Kennedy-Baker’s (2020) research which found that emergency department experiences highest cases of violence accounting for 78% on physicians and 100% on nurses for the past year. Home care workers are vulnerable to homicide which has primarily resulted in deaths. Health care workers working in mental health facilities have experienced higher verbal and physical assaults than those working in other sections.
Hospital is usually a stressful environment when a patient and a family enter the healthcare system. The patient and family are susceptible and distressed as a result of the healthcare issue. Healthcare sections, such as drug stores, are frequently targets for robbery (Kennedy & Kennedy-Baker, 2020). Shortage of employees in healthcare facilities and increased patient perception concerning long waiting and dissatisfaction with the services create a risk for violence in the workplaces.
Effects of Workplace Violence on Healthcare Workers
Healthcare workers who experience workplace violence are vulnerable to mental health and psychological problems. The workers have experienced stressors such as posttraumatic stress disorders, depression, and anxiety. The employees experience psychological and socio-economic issues that cause stress, burnout, high nurse turnover rates, and a drop in productivity (Kennedy & Kennedy-Baker, 2020). The staff may also develop fear, anxiety, anger, frustration, low self-esteem, and lower job satisfaction. Other workers develop psychological defects, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, physical injuries, and gastrointestinal dysfunctions.
Workplace violence causes financial impacts, which can have direct or indirect cost implications. The direct cost to the health care business is a consequent lawsuit from the concerned party. For instance, the approximate jury award due to the employer’s failure to react and take preventive procedures was $3.1 million per person for every occurrence (as cited in Lakatos et al., 2019). Indirect costs include lost work during the days of violent incidences and lost wages on healthcare and nursing, resulting from an increase in turnover and a high number of requests for medical leaves.
Prevention of Workplace Violence
A multidimensional and multidisciplinary approach is appropriate to address workplace violence in diverse sectors of healthcare organizations. Healthcare organizations need to collaborate with law enforcement agencies to help detect and reduce the causes of violence (Kennedy & Kennedy-Baker, 2020). There is a need to review and update existing workplace policies and guidelines. The leadership of healthcare organization needs to develop a reporting process on incidences of workplace violence and assault.
Hospitals need to follow OSHA’s guidelines for preventing workplace violence for health and social service workers to form a workplace violence (WPV) prevention suite as a part of the safety and health initiative. The program should include leadership commitment, employee involvement, hazard prohibition, and program evaluation (Robinson, 2018). Medical and psychological counseling initiatives for the workers who face abuse should be part of the program. Policies that enable reporting, recording, of monitoring of occurrences will be helpful. Different health care departments experience various rates of incidents and hence require different intervention strategies. Mitigating workplace violence in an emergency department requires administrators, managers, and hospital security’s commitment to enhance a safer workplace.
Advocacy to address workplace violence requires state laws that ensure legislative consequences for the offenders of violent acts in the healthcare workplace. State Laws can help reduce cases of workplace violence. Emergency Nurses Association has to lead the push to advocate for legislative penalties for the perpetrators of violence. States in the US like Nevada, Colorado, Delaware, Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Illinois are examples of 30 states that have legalized criminal penalty for the offenders of violent acts (as cited in Lakatos et al., 2019).
Educating employees and supporting victims of an incident at workplace violence effectively reduces violent occurrences. Organizations need to enforce and implement policies and procedures that limit violence prevalence (National Nurses United, 2020). Health care organizations need to educate their staff on how to detect the possibility of violence and how to adopt intensification methods and ways of asking for help to prevent or react to ferocity.
In conclusion, it is worth reiterating that the number of workplace violence cases has continued to increase in various healthcare departments in the United States. The causes are of various categories ranging from understaffing, mental defects of the clients, and pressure at workplaces. There is a strong need to establish intervention measures such as legislative and policy measures while also creating programs to help in detecting and reporting violence at work stations.
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References
Congressional Media Center. (2021). Courtney re-introduces bill to curb rising rates of violence against health care and social service workers amid covid-19 [Press Release].
Kennedy, B., & Kennedy-Baker, C. (2020). Workplace violence against healthcare workers in health services organizations. BRK Global Healthcare Journal, 4(1), 1−16. Web.
Kuter, B. J., Browne, S., Momplaisir, F. M., Feemster, K. A., Shen, A. K., Green-McKenzie, J., & Offit, P. A. (2021). Perspectives on the receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine: A survey of employees in two large hospitals in Philadelphia. Vaccine, 39(12), 1693−1700.
Lakatos, B. E., Mitchell, M. T., Askari, R., Etheredge, M. L., Hopcia, K., DeLisle, L., Smith, C., Fagan, M., Mulloy, D., Lewis-O’Connor, A., Higgins, M., & Shellman, A. (2019). An interdisciplinary clinical approach for workplace violence prevention and injury reduction in the General Hospital setting: SAFE response. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 25(4), 280−288. Web.
National Nurses United. (2020). National nurse survey exposes hospitals’ knowing failure to prepare for a covid-19 surge during flu season.
Robinson, I. (2018). Prevention of workplace violence among health care workers. Workplace Health & Safety, 67(2), 96–96.