Cargando…

Unheard Victims: Multidisciplinary Incidence and Reporting of Violence in an Emergency Department

INTRODUCTION: Workplace violence in the emergency department (ED) is a serious threat to staff and is likely to go unreported. We sought to identify the incidence of violence among staff at our academic ED over a six-month period. METHODS: An anonymous survey was sent to all ED staff, asking whether...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: McGuire, Sarayna S., Mullan, Aidan F., Clements, Casey M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8203007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34125050
http://dx.doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2021.2.50046
_version_ 1783708081379606528
author McGuire, Sarayna S.
Mullan, Aidan F.
Clements, Casey M.
author_facet McGuire, Sarayna S.
Mullan, Aidan F.
Clements, Casey M.
author_sort McGuire, Sarayna S.
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Workplace violence in the emergency department (ED) is a serious threat to staff and is likely to go unreported. We sought to identify the incidence of violence among staff at our academic ED over a six-month period. METHODS: An anonymous survey was sent to all ED staff, asking whether respondents had experienced verbal abuse or physical assault over the prior six months and whether they had reported it. Those working in the department <6 months were excluded from analysis. We used chi-squared comparison to analyze the results. RESULTS: We analyzed 242 responses. Overall, 208 (86%) respondents indicated being verbally abused in the preceding six months, and 90 (37%) indicated being physically assaulted. Security officers had the highest incidence of verbal abuse (98%), followed by nursing (95%), patient care assistants (PCA) (90%) and clinicians (90%), phlebotomists (75%), care team assistants (73%), registration staff (50%) and electrocardiogram (ECG)/radiology technicians (50%). Security also had the highest incidence of physical assault (73%), followed by nursing (49%), PCAs (30%), clinicians (24%), phlebotomists (17%), and ECG/radiology technicians (13%). A total of 140 (69%) non-security personnel indicated that they never report incidents of violence. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that violence in the ED affects more than just nurses and doctors. As health systems seek to improve the safety of their employees in violence-prone areas, it is imperative that they direct initiatives to the entire healthcare team as no one group is immune.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8203007
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82030072021-06-21 Unheard Victims: Multidisciplinary Incidence and Reporting of Violence in an Emergency Department McGuire, Sarayna S. Mullan, Aidan F. Clements, Casey M. West J Emerg Med Provider Workforce INTRODUCTION: Workplace violence in the emergency department (ED) is a serious threat to staff and is likely to go unreported. We sought to identify the incidence of violence among staff at our academic ED over a six-month period. METHODS: An anonymous survey was sent to all ED staff, asking whether respondents had experienced verbal abuse or physical assault over the prior six months and whether they had reported it. Those working in the department <6 months were excluded from analysis. We used chi-squared comparison to analyze the results. RESULTS: We analyzed 242 responses. Overall, 208 (86%) respondents indicated being verbally abused in the preceding six months, and 90 (37%) indicated being physically assaulted. Security officers had the highest incidence of verbal abuse (98%), followed by nursing (95%), patient care assistants (PCA) (90%) and clinicians (90%), phlebotomists (75%), care team assistants (73%), registration staff (50%) and electrocardiogram (ECG)/radiology technicians (50%). Security also had the highest incidence of physical assault (73%), followed by nursing (49%), PCAs (30%), clinicians (24%), phlebotomists (17%), and ECG/radiology technicians (13%). A total of 140 (69%) non-security personnel indicated that they never report incidents of violence. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that violence in the ED affects more than just nurses and doctors. As health systems seek to improve the safety of their employees in violence-prone areas, it is imperative that they direct initiatives to the entire healthcare team as no one group is immune. Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine 2021-05 2021-05-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8203007/ /pubmed/34125050 http://dx.doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2021.2.50046 Text en Copyright: © 2021 McGuire et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
spellingShingle Provider Workforce
McGuire, Sarayna S.
Mullan, Aidan F.
Clements, Casey M.
Unheard Victims: Multidisciplinary Incidence and Reporting of Violence in an Emergency Department
title Unheard Victims: Multidisciplinary Incidence and Reporting of Violence in an Emergency Department
title_full Unheard Victims: Multidisciplinary Incidence and Reporting of Violence in an Emergency Department
title_fullStr Unheard Victims: Multidisciplinary Incidence and Reporting of Violence in an Emergency Department
title_full_unstemmed Unheard Victims: Multidisciplinary Incidence and Reporting of Violence in an Emergency Department
title_short Unheard Victims: Multidisciplinary Incidence and Reporting of Violence in an Emergency Department
title_sort unheard victims: multidisciplinary incidence and reporting of violence in an emergency department
topic Provider Workforce
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8203007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34125050
http://dx.doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2021.2.50046
work_keys_str_mv AT mcguiresaraynas unheardvictimsmultidisciplinaryincidenceandreportingofviolenceinanemergencydepartment
AT mullanaidanf unheardvictimsmultidisciplinaryincidenceandreportingofviolenceinanemergencydepartment
AT clementscaseym unheardvictimsmultidisciplinaryincidenceandreportingofviolenceinanemergencydepartment