Personnel exposure to violence in hospital emergency wards: a routine activity approach

Abstract

This study analyzes violence against personnel in the emergency wards of all 25 general hospitals in Israel using a self-report questionnaire (N=2,356). Informed by the routine activity theory, the hypotheses related to the major concepts of this approach: exposure, target suitability, guarding and proximity to offenders. A General Exposure to Violence Index (GEVI) was constructed, based on the participants' reports about type and frequency of their victimization to violence during the preceding year. The multiple regression analysis for explaining the GEVI was composed of 15 independent variables relating to participants' professional and personal characteristics as well as to structural features of hospitals. As predicted, higher exposure to violence was related to security or nursing staff and positions of authority; high weekly workload; working in a profession other than that of training; inability of coping with verbal violence; having no access to an emergency button, and working in settings restricting the number of accompanying persons to one only. Unexpectedly, previous training in coping with violence was related to higher victimization. Younger age, male gender and being of European/American origin (mainly from the former Soviet Union) was also related to higher risk of victimization. The results support the utility of the routine activities approach in explaining differences in emergency ward personnel victimization. The findings also indicate, however, the need to add domain-specific contextual analyses to this approach to reach a fuller understanding of the behaviors under discussion. Implications of the finding to coping with violence against emergency ward personnel are discussed, and suggestions are put forward for further study in this field.

Work-related Violence against Security Guards—Who is Most at Risk?

“…Among Finnish security guards, the results were consistent with earlier research on different occupational groups, showing associations with male gender 6,13,16,30,31) , young age 6,10,[13][14][15][16] , time pressure at work 16,30) , lack of work experience 6,13,14,16,30) , and working in high density areas such as metropolitan areas 13) . Thus in the security sector, those at highest risk are young, male, less experienced workers, and those under high time pressure at work.…”

“…Factors associated with work-related violence are male gender among, for instance police officers, taxicab drivers, social workers, those working in jail settings 13) , young age among for example environmental health officers 10) and different professions in the health sector 14,15) ; both time pressure 16) and lack of experience at work 6,14) among different professions in the health sector; late working hours among environmental health professions 10) , and for police officers, working in metropolitan areas 13) .…”

The dangers and self protective behaviors of ride share drivers.

“…In other words, the closer the victim and the offender are in distance, the higher the probability that a crime may occur (De Coster, Estes, & Mueller, 1999;Landau & Bendalak, 2008;Lynch, 1987;Madriz, 1996;Miethe & Meier, 1990;Mustaine & Tewksbury, 1999;Wittebrood & Nieuwbeerta, 2000;Wooldredge, Cullen, & Latessa, 1992). Further, the proximity of the target to high crime areas increases to opportunity for crime to occur (Meier & Miethe, 1993).…”

“…This person or place becomes victim to this motivated offender for the sheer fact of not being guarded and also being attractive (Cohen, Kluegel, & Land, 1981;De Coster, Estes, & Mueller, 1999;Felson & Clarke, 1998;Landau & Bendalak, 2008;Lynch, 1987;Wittebrood & Nieuwbeerta, 2000). According to Brown and others (2015), "there must be something that tempts the hedonistic calculus of the would-be offender" (Brown, Esbensen, & Geis, 2015, p. 189).…”

“…These are specific occupations, which may cause an employee to be exposed to the possibility of becoming a crime victim. In a study of twenty-five emergency hospital wards in Israel, Landau and Bendalak (2008), using routine activity theory as a basis, developed a General Exposure to Violence Index (GEVI) to report the type and frequency of victimization that employees faced in the preceding year. The original three elements of routine activity theory were transformed into four concepts similar to those of the VRS: exposure, target suitability, guarding, and proximity to offenders.…”