Individual, relationship, workplace, and societal recommendations for addressing healthcare workplace violence

Abstract

Workplace violence from coworkers, patients, and visitors is a problem affecting every occupational group in the health and social service sector [1-3]. Workplace violence is demonstrated by coworkers through bullying behaviors and by patients and visitors through physical threats and assaults. The purpose of this article is to highlight the special issue authors' and guest editors' recommendations for protecting healthcare workers from being victimized and incurring the negative consequences of having experienced workplace violence. Recommendations from the special issue were categorized and discussed in relation to the Social-Ecological Model and the prevention efforts targeting individuals, relationships, communities, and society. Individual-level recommendations focused on the personal risk reduction for healthcare workers. Relationship-level recommendations addressed the problem of bullying between coworkers and physical violence derived from patients and visitors. Workplace-level recommendations discussed a multi-faceted systems approach to violence management. Societal-level recommendations centered on a universal health policy approach. The use of a model such as the Social-Ecological Model can be helpful in planning violence prevention efforts in the healthcare setting.