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Assaults on Nursing Personnel
Johnson, Branka Dunton, Nancy Miller, Peggy
Johnson, Branka
Dunton, Nancy
Miller, Peggy
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Abstract
Introduction: Nurses are frequent victims of workplace violence. Little research has been done that examines multiple factors related to assaults against nurses. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of the rate of physical injury assault against hospital nurses with characteristics of assailants, of the nursing workforce, unit types, and hospital types. By providing insight into the factors that are associated with assaults on nursing staff, hospitals may be able to develop initiatives that decrease the number of assaults or decrease the severity of injuries. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional, correlational study based on unit-level analysis. A convenience sample of 372 eligible units in 33 hospital members of the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) were invited to participate. Eligible unit types included adult and pediatric medical, surgical, and medical-surgical, neonate, obstetrics, perioperative, psychiatric, and emergency services. Twenty-seven hospitals submitted data from 180 units. Data were collected under a protocol approved by the University of Kansas Medical Center's Institutional Review Board. Incidents of physical and sexual assaults were recorded in a log available at the nurses' station of each participating unit during October 2012 Findings: The analysis revealed the frequency of assaults, the characteristics of the nursing staff most frequently assaulted, unit types on which assaults are most common, and characteristics of assailants. Teaching hospitals in this sample accounted for the most cases of assaults with 68.3% of the total reported, whereas non-teaching hospitals had 22% and academic medical centers 9.8% of the total incidents. Among unit types, neonate, pediatric and obstetric units reported no assaults. Emergency departments, adult and psychiatric units reported the most assaults. All reported assaults were of a physical nature. Out of 92 assaults, 24 resulted in injury, of which 23 were minor and 1 was moderate. Patients were assailants 89 times with the remaining 3 being visitors or other. Assailants were usually male (55.4%) and assaultees were usually female (66.3%). The assaultees were mostly registered nurses (78.3%). Discussion: Most assaults on nurses occurred on adult medical and surgical units, psychiatric units, and in emergency services. Most assaults did not result in injury. Most assailants were patients. To reduce the incidence of assaults on nurses, hospitals could target interventions on these four unit types. Potential interventions could include implementing easy-to-use reporting systems, staff training on patient de-escalation, increase surveillance and security measures. Disclosures: Research was sponsored by the NDNQI under contract to the American Nurses Association.
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Paper submitted to the University of Kansas School of Nursing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Nursing Honors Program.
Date
2013-08-01
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Nursing