TY - JOUR
PY - 2016//
TI - Physical injury and workplace assault in UK mental health trusts: an analysis of formal reports
JO - International journal of mental health nursing
A1 - Renwick, Laoise
A1 - Lavelle, Mary
A1 - Brennan, Geoffrey
A1 - Stewart, Duncan
A1 - James, Karen
A1 - Richardson, Michelle
A1 - Williams, Hilary
A1 - Price, Owen
A1 - Bowers, Len
SP - 355
EP - 366
VL - 25
IS - 4
N2 - Workplace violence is a significant problem for health service personnel, with National Health Service (NHS) workers subject to 68 683 physical assaults between 2013 and 2014. Almost 70% of assaults occur in the mental health sector, and although serious, non-fatal injury is rare, the individual and economic impact can be substantial. In the present study, we analysed mandatory incident reports from a national database to examine whether there were identifiable precursors to incidents leading to staff injury, and whether staff characteristics were associated with injury. In line with previous descriptions, we found injury occurred either as a direct result of patient assault or during physical interventions employed by staff to contain aggression. Importantly, we found little evidence from staff reports that patients' symptoms were driving aggression, and we found less evidence of patient perspectives among reports. We make several recommendations regarding the reporting of these events that could inform policy and interventions aimed at minimizing the likelihood of injury.
© 2016 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1445-8330 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/inm.12201 ID - ref1 ER -