Emergency department workers' perceptions of security officers' effectiveness during violent events

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gates DM ; Gillespie GL ; Howard PK ; Miller M
• Description:
  OBJECTIVE: The emergency department (ED) is among the most at-risk settings for violence by patients and visitors against ED workers. A first response to potential or actual events of workplace violence is often contacting hospital security officers for assistance. The purpose of this study is to describe ED workers' views of security officers' effectiveness during actual events of verbal and/or physical violence. PARTICIPANTS: Healthcare workers (n=31) from an urban pediatric ED in the Midwest United States. METHODS: Participants were interviewed regarding their experiences with workplace violence. Verbatim transcripts were qualitatively analyzed. RESULTS: Six themes were identified: (1) a need for security officers, (2) security officers' availability and response, (3) security officers' presence or involvement, (4) security officers' ability to handle violent situations, (5) security officers' role with restraints, and (6) security officers' role with access. CONCLUSIONS: It is important that early communication between security officers and ED workers takes place before violent events occur. A uniform understanding of the roles and responsibilities of security officers should be clearly communicated to ED workers. Future research needs to be conducted with hospital-based security officers to describe their perceptions about their role in the prevention and management of workplace violence. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Behavior
  • Emergencies
  • Emergency Responders
  • Health Care Facilities Workforce and Services
  • Health Personnel
  • Law Enforcement
  • Mental Health
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
  • Safety Management
  More +
• Keywords:
  • Injuries
  • Physical-reactions
  • Physiological-response
  • Behavior
  • Psychological-responses
  • Psychology
  • Emergency-responders
  • Emergency-response
  • Law-enforcement-workers
  • Safety-personnel
  More +
• ISSN:
  1051-9815
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  21-27
• Volume:
  42
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041383
• Citation:
  Work 2012 May; 42(1):21-27
• Contact Point Address:
  Gordon Lee Gillespie, PhD, University of Cincinnati College of Nursing, P.O. Box 21-0038, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0038, USA
• Email:
  gordon.gillespie@uc.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  University of Cincinnati
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Work
• End Date:
  20260630
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193964/cdc_193964_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 148.28 KB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:020192bcf31dd5c36405c638c42669926e4156fa65d59df9d2e5addd3065293c194ca8826b7f447964ad30d443d26430a3996ec73648be49a27cfd902edcdd6f