Abstract
Workplace violence can lead to serious consequences for victims, organizations, and society. Most workplace violence prevention programs aim to train staff to better recognize and safely manage at-risk situations. The Omega education and training program was developed in Canada in 1999, and has since been used to teach healthcare and mental health workers the skills needed to effectively intervene in situations of aggression. The present study was designed to assess the impact of Omega on employee psychological distress, confidence in coping, and perceived exposure to violence. This program was offered to 105 employees in a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, Canada. Eighty-nine of them accepted to participate. Questionnaires were completed before the training, after a short period of time (M = 109 days) and at follow-up (M = 441 days). Repeated-measures ANOVAs and Cohen’s d effect sizes were calculated. Results demonstrated statistically significant improvements in short-term and follow-up posttest scores of psychological distress, confidence in coping, and in levels of exposure to violence. This study is one of very few to demonstrate the positive impact of this training program. Further research is needed to understand how to improve the effectiveness of the program, especially among participants resistant to change.
Highlights
According to the World Health Organization, workplace violence is “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation” [1]
Rates of patient aggression in psychiatric settings range from 0.07–0.25 aggressive incidents per bed per year [3]
Several studies in the healthcare sector have established a positive association between workplace violence and psychological distress [8,9,10,11], and between workplace violence and a lesser level of confidence in one’s own abilities to cope with patient aggression [12,13]
Summary
According to the World Health Organization, workplace violence is “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation” [1]. Showed that between 14% and 61% of mental health workers had been victimized by violent acts, mainly due to aggressive patient behaviours [5]. 47 studies identified several psychological consequences for workers, 27 reported physical consequences, 25 revealed an impact on emotional well-being, 47 highlighted consequences related to work functioning, 10 showed a negative impact on the quality of the relationship and care with patients, and four studies reported financial and social consequences. Several studies in the healthcare sector have established a positive association between workplace violence and psychological distress [8,9,10,11], and between workplace violence and a lesser level of confidence in one’s own abilities to cope with patient aggression [12,13]. Highlighted the importance for mental healthcare workers, who are at high-risk of violence, to have confidence in their capacities to work with aggressive patients. The perceived severity of aggressive behaviors may decrease following training, which could be a sign of an increased confidence to manage these events [3]
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