Wearable Technology and Pulse Transit Time (PTT) Used to Assess Workplace Violence Incidents in Nursing

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Nurses are exposed to incidents of workplace violence involving patients and their family members, and also coworkers. Studies of occupational stressors generally rely on subjective self-reports, questionnaires, or biometric and biochemical markers in long-cycle time intervals, but such assessments offer little guidance to HF/E intervention efforts. This study examined the viability of using wearable sensors to detect workplace violence incidents, and included measurement of pulse transit time (PTT) as a biomarker of continuous blood pressure. Six nurses were monitored over seven days. The electrocardiogram, PTT, and activity level were measured using a custom-designed armband. Participants used a wristwatch (Empatica E4) to log incidents, and a smartphone survey app to rate incident severity. Results show PTT was a more reliable indicator of workplace incidents than low- to high-frequency (LF/LH) ratio heart rate variability, offering a more robust way to continuously monitor critical events noninvasively over long periods in demanding work environments.