The ED is a particularly vulnerable setting for workplace violence, and because of a lack of standardized measurement and reporting mechanisms for violence in healthcare settings, data are scarce.The Emergency Nurses Association’s study on violence against nurses working in emergency departments, revealed that nurses in the EDs are more at risk for physical and verbal violence mainly because of the nature of the area they work in. In the emergency department, all sorts of people come in. Those under the influence of alcohol or drugs or patients under stress might pose a threat to the safety of health care professionals in the ED.
In a survey conducted by the American Nurses Association,less than 20% of nurses surveyed in 2001 felt safe in their current work environment.Research has consistently found that nurses are concerned about violence and aggression, inadequate safety measures, and personal vulnerability in the workplace. Many nurses simply do not feel safe at work.
In this study, researchers found that nurses in pediatric EDs were less likely to experience frequent physical violence, whereas nurses who primarily worked the night shift and nurses who worked on weekends were more likely to experience frequent physical violence. Female nurses were less likely than male nurses to indicate that they had experienced frequent physical violence. A reduced risk of experiencing frequent physical violence in the ED was associated with having facility policies for reporting workplace violent incidents, facility responses to such incidents, and hospital and ED administration commitment to eliminating workplace violence against emergency nurses. Nurses who felt that violence from patients/visitors is an unavoidable part of practice were more likely to have experienced frequent ED physical violence.
Through these results, it shows that the institution’s policies in protecting ED nurses, as well as the nurses’ vigilance in protecting themselves play a major role in decreasing violence. Nurse who experience violence should report the incident so the institution can do something about it.
More importantly, there should be laws to address this issue. Nursing leaders should take steps for the legislation to pass a bill specifically designed to protect health care workers from such violence.
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