Violence Prevention and Management in the Healthcare Sector

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2021) | Viewed by 29099

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Nursing, University of British Columbia, T225-2211 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 2B5, Canada
Interests: health services research; long-term care; staffing and workload; quality and safety of health care; healthy work environments; occupational health and safety; workplace violence
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Nursing, The University of British Columbia, T201-2211 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 2B5, Canada
Interests: healthcare work environments; realist methods; complex systems; healthcare administration and leadership
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The scope of this issue is to disseminate research evidence on violence prevention and management in the healthcare sector. Prevention and management strategies may be at any systems level—from the local level (e.g., acute care units, long term care facilities, primary care clinics) to government and policy levels (e.g., national and international). Prevention and management may include environmental or behavioural considerations, such as personal alarms, use of trained security personnel, de-escalation, and self-defense strategies.  Violence may be Type 1 lateral violence or Type II violence (e.g., clients, families, visitors). The healthcare sector may include any setting, including acute care, long-term care, community and home care, mental health, and primary care. Research may be quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods or reviews that meet established review standards, and data may be primary or secondary sources. 

Dr. Naz (Farinaz) Havaei
Prof. Maura MacPhee
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • healthcare
  • violence
  • prevention
  • management
  • research
  • healthy work environments

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 269 KiB  
Article
Does the Type of Exposure to Workplace Violence Matter to Nurses’ Mental Health?
by Farinaz Havaei
Healthcare 2021, 9(1), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9010041 - 05 Jan 2021
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 6014
Abstract
Workplace violence is a prevalent phenomenon in healthcare, particularly among nursing professionals. Exposure to workplace violence may be direct through firsthand involvement, indirect through secondhand witnessing, or both. Even though implications for victims of workplace violence have been well-studied, less is known about [...] Read more.
Workplace violence is a prevalent phenomenon in healthcare, particularly among nursing professionals. Exposure to workplace violence may be direct through firsthand involvement, indirect through secondhand witnessing, or both. Even though implications for victims of workplace violence have been well-studied, less is known about the various types of exposure and their effects on nurse mental health. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of workplace-violence exposure types on the mental health of nurses, while accounting for the intensity of the incident/s. This study employs an exploratory correlational design with survey methods. Nurses from British Columbia (BC), Canada, were invited by the provincial nurses’ union to complete an electronic survey in Fall 2019. A total of 2958 responses from direct-care nurses in acute-care settings were analyzed using logistic regression. The results showed that mental-health problems increased with cumulative exposure; even though nurses with solely indirect exposure to workplace violence did not report greater mental-health problems, those experiencing solely direct exposure, or both direct and indirect exposure, were two to four times more likely to report high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression and burnout compared to their counterparts with no exposure. There is an urgent need for better mental-health support, prevention policies and practices that take into account the type of workplace-violence exposure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Violence Prevention and Management in the Healthcare Sector)
12 pages, 455 KiB  
Article
Violence on the Job: The Experiences of Nurses and Midwives with Violence from Patients and Their Friends and Relatives
by Jacqueline Pich and Michael Roche
Healthcare 2020, 8(4), 522; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8040522 - 30 Nov 2020
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 5366
Abstract
Violence in healthcare is recognised as a significant workplace issue worldwide, with nurses recognised as the profession at greatest risk. The purpose of this study was to explore nurses’ and midwives’ experiences of violence in different clinical areas, work sectors and geographical regions. [...] Read more.
Violence in healthcare is recognised as a significant workplace issue worldwide, with nurses recognised as the profession at greatest risk. The purpose of this study was to explore nurses’ and midwives’ experiences of violence in different clinical areas, work sectors and geographical regions. A cross-sectional design was employed to survey the membership of the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association about their experiences with violence from patients and/or their friends and relatives in their workplace. A total of 3416 participants returned a completed questionnaire and more than three-quarters of had experienced an episode of violence in the preceding six months. Participants working in the public health sector reported significantly more physically violent behaviours than their colleagues in the private sector. No statistically significant difference between the rates of violence (overall) was identified between different geographical areas. Violent behaviours were reported across all clinical settings, with emergency departments, mental health and drug and alcohol settings reporting the highest proportion of episodes. The results of this large study highlight the high levels of violence that nurses and midwives experience in the workplace across all sectors of employment, geographical regions and clinical settings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Violence Prevention and Management in the Healthcare Sector)
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11 pages, 241 KiB  
Article
Factors Affecting Mistreatment of the Elderly in Long-Term Care Facilities
by Jeongmi Lim
Healthcare 2020, 8(3), 224; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8030224 - 23 Jul 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3530
Abstract
In long-term care facilities, elderly mistreatment occurs routinely and frequently. However, few studies have empirically explored the multifaceted risk factor of mistreatment. The purpose of this paper was to explore the factors affecting elderly mistreatment by care workers in Japanese long-term care facilities [...] Read more.
In long-term care facilities, elderly mistreatment occurs routinely and frequently. However, few studies have empirically explored the multifaceted risk factor of mistreatment. The purpose of this paper was to explore the factors affecting elderly mistreatment by care workers in Japanese long-term care facilities and to examine the relationship between these factors and mistreatment. This analysis was based on a sample of 1473 care workers from long-term care facilities and used multiple regression analyses. The results revealed that the nursing care level, work period, resilience, and attitude towards mistreatment among residents and staff were factors significantly associated with the degree of mistreatment. Facility size, an institutional environment that does not limit the behavior of residents, and family and community support for the elderly were among the institutional environment factors that had significant relationships with mistreatment. Staff gender, care-related qualifications, and workload were not associated with mistreatment. These findings suggest that strengthening the staff’s attitude and coping skills to prevent mistreatment, as well as interventions for changes in the institutional environment, are needed to prevent and reduce the prevalence of mistreatment in Japan. In addition, raising staff resilience to stress situations and building a resident-centered facility care environment is an important measure to reduce mistreatment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Violence Prevention and Management in the Healthcare Sector)
14 pages, 266 KiB  
Article
Workplace Violence among British Columbia Nurses Across Different Roles and Contexts
by Farinaz Havaei, Maura MacPhee and Andy Ma
Healthcare 2020, 8(2), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8020098 - 14 Apr 2020
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 8123
Abstract
Workplace violence in healthcare settings is on the rise, particularly against nurses. Most healthcare violence research is in acute care settings. The purpose of this paper is to present descriptive findings on the prevalence of types and sources of workplace violence among nurses [...] Read more.
Workplace violence in healthcare settings is on the rise, particularly against nurses. Most healthcare violence research is in acute care settings. The purpose of this paper is to present descriptive findings on the prevalence of types and sources of workplace violence among nurses in different roles (i.e., direct care, leader, educator), specialties, care sectors (i.e., acute, community, long-term care) and geographic contexts (i.e., urban, suburban, rural) within the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada. This is a province-wide survey study using a cross-sectional descriptive, correlational design. An electronic survey was emailed by the provincial union to members across the province in Fall 2019. A total of 4462 responses were analyzed using descriptive and chi-square statistics. The most common types of workplace violence were emotional abuse, threats of assault and physical assault for all nursing roles and contexts. Findings were similar to previous BC research from two decades ago except for two to ten times higher proportions of all types of violence, including verbal and physical sexual assault. Patients were the most common source of violence towards nurses. Nurses should be involved in developing workplace violence interventions that are tailored to work environment contexts and populations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Violence Prevention and Management in the Healthcare Sector)

Review

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15 pages, 1031 KiB  
Review
A Realist Review of Violence Prevention Education in Healthcare
by Sharon Provost, Maura MacPhee, Michael A. Daniels, Michelle Naimi and Chris McLeod
Healthcare 2021, 9(3), 339; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030339 - 17 Mar 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5246
Abstract
Violence from patients and visitors towards healthcare workers is an international concern affecting the safety and health of workers, quality of care, and healthcare system sustainability. Although the predominant intervention has been violence prevention (VP) education for healthcare workers, evaluating its effectiveness is [...] Read more.
Violence from patients and visitors towards healthcare workers is an international concern affecting the safety and health of workers, quality of care, and healthcare system sustainability. Although the predominant intervention has been violence prevention (VP) education for healthcare workers, evaluating its effectiveness is challenging due to underreporting of violence and the inherent complexity of both violence and the health care environment. This review utilized a theory-driven, realist approach to synthesize and analyze a wide range of academic and grey literature to identify explanations of how and why VP education makes a difference in preventing violence and associated physical and psychological injury to workers. The review confirmed the importance of positioning VP education as part of a VP strategy, and consideration of the contexts that influence successful application of VP knowledge and skills. Synthesis and analysis of patterns of evidence across 64 documents resulted in 11 realist explanations of VP education effectiveness. Examples include education specific to clinical settings, unit-level modeling and mentoring support, and support of peers and supervisors during violent incidents. This review informs practical program and policy decisions to enhance VP education effectiveness in healthcare settings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Violence Prevention and Management in the Healthcare Sector)
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