ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Relation between policies and work related assault: Minnesota Nurses’ Study

N M Nachreiner¹, S G Gerberich¹, P M McGovern¹, T R Church¹, H E Hansen², M S Geisser¹ and A D Ryan¹

¹ Center for Violence Prevention and Control, Regional Injury Prevention Research Center, and Occupational Injury Prevention Research Training Program, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
² School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr N Nachreiner
Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Mayo Mail Code 807, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA; nachr001{at}umn.edu

Aims: To assess the relation between violence prevention policies and work related assault.

Methods: From Phase 1 of the Minnesota Nurses’ Study, a population based survey of 6300 Minnesota nurses (response 79%), 13.2% reported experiencing work related physical assault in the past year. In Phase 2, a case-control study, 1900 nurses (response 75%) were questioned about exposures relevant to violence, including eight work related violence prevention policy items. A comprehensive causal model served as a basis for survey design, analyses, and interpretation. Sensitivity analyses were conducted for potential exposure misclassification and the presence of an unmeasured confounder.

Results: Results of multiple regression analyses, controlling for appropriate factors, indicated that the odds of physical assault decreased for having a zero tolerance policy (OR = 0.5, 95% CI 0.4 to 0.8) and having policies regarding types of prohibited violent behaviours (OR = 0.5, 95% CI 0.3 to 0.9). Analyses adjusted for non-response and non-selection resulted in wider confidence intervals, but no substantial change in effect estimates.

Conclusions: It appears that some work related violence policies may be protective for the population of Minnesota nurses.

Keywords: occupational violence; physical assault; policies

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