Risk factors for work related violence in a health care organization.
OBJECTIVE
Identify the exposure effects of job family, patient contact, and supervisor support on physical and non-physical work related violence.


METHODS
Cross sectional study of employees in a Midwest health care organization, utilizing a specially designed mailed questionnaire and employer secondary data.


METHODS
Respondents included 1751 current and former employees (42% response rate).


RESULTS
Physical and non-physical violence was experienced by 127 (7.2%) and 536 (30.6%) of the respondents, respectively. Multivariate analyses of physical violence identified increased odds for patient care assistants (odds ratio (OR) 2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1. 1 to 6.1) and decreased odds for clerical workers (OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.5). Adjusted for job family, increased odds of physical violence were identified for moderate (OR 5.9, 95% CI 2.1 to 16.0) and high (OR 7.8, 95% CI 2.9 to 20.8) patient contact. Similar trends were identified for non-physical violence (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.0 and OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.3 to 2.3). Increased supervisor support decreased the odds of both physical (OR 0.7, 95% CI 0.6 to 0.95) and non-physical violence (OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.4 to 0.6), adjusting for job family and demographic characteristics.


CONCLUSIONS
Increased odds of physical violence were identified for the job family of nurses, even when adjusted for patient contact. Increased patient contact resulted in increased physical and non-physical violence, independent of job family, while supervisor support resulted in decreased odds of physical and non-physical violence.
Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Minneapolis 55455, USA. find0003@umn.edu
M J
MJ
Findorff
P M
PM
McGovern
M
M
Wall
S G
SG
Gerberich
B
B
Alexander
D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008910:Minnesota; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010559:Personnel Management / Q000592:standards; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*