I read with interest the article by Christopher Fernandes and colleagues on violence in the emergency department.1 Violence in the workplace has previously been discussed in CMAJ[2, 3] and violence in the health care setting was the subject of another recent report.4 On the basis of workers' compensation data, a colleague and I documented significantly increased rates of lost-time claims owing to acts of violence for both male nurses (54 times higher) and female nurses (5.9 times higher) compared with the workforce as a whole.5 It appears that despite a variety of preventive strategies, guidelines and legislative measures[3, 6] there remains a worrisome burden of illness from violence in the health care workplace.
References
- 1.↵
Fernandes CMB, Bouthillette F, Raboud JM, Bullock L, Moore CF, Christenson JM, et al. Violence in the emergency department: a survey of health care workers. CMAJ 1999;161(10):1245-8.
- 2.↵
Yassi A. Assault and abuse of health care workers in a large teaching hospital. CMAJ 1994;151(9):1273-9.
- 3.↵
Liss GM, McCaskell L. Violence in the workplace [editorial]. CMAJ 1994;151(9):1243-6.
- 4.↵
Lee SS, Gerberich SG, Waller LA, Anderson A, McGovern P. Work-related assault injuries among nurses. Epidemiology 1999;10:685-91.
- 5.↵
Liss GM, McCaskell L. Injuries due to violence: workers' compensation claims among nurses in Ontario. AAOHN J 1994;42:384-90.
- 6.↵
California Department of Industrial Relations. Guidelines for security and safety of health care workers and community service workers. San Francisco: The Department; 1993.