Prevalence of occupational hazards and mitigation strategies
| Occupational safety concern | n (%) |
| Any occupational injury in the past 12 months | 3608 (27) |
| Type of occupation injury* (>1 possible) | |
| Back injury | 2220 (17) |
| Needlestick | 227 (2) |
| Other | 1831 (14) |
| Any occupational exposure in the past 12 months | 4994 (38) |
| Type of occupational exposure† (>1 possible) | |
| Blood | 3649 (28) |
| Hazardous chemicals | 715 (5) |
| Smoke | 2535 (19) |
| Any occupational violence experienced in the past 12 months | 8444 (64) |
| Type of occupational violence experienced‡ (>1 possible) | |
| Cursing | 8228 (62) |
| Punching | 3687 (28) |
| Spitting | 3290 (25) |
| Biting | 1504 (8) |
| Struck with an object | 1706 (8) |
| Stabbing | 229 (2) |
| Shooting | 70 (1) |
| Mitigation strategies | |
| Patient lifting policy | 8706 (66) |
| Patient lifting training | 9301 (71) |
| Use of powered stretcher | |
| Never | 2559 (19) |
| Sometimes | 3492 (27) |
| Always | 7100 (54) |
| PPE/CBN training | 8374 (36) |
| De-escalation training | 5713 (43) |
| Patient restraint (physical and/or chemical) training | 6571 (50) |
*Among those reporting any occupational injury. A total of 838 (6%) respondents reported >1 type of injury.
†Among those reporting any occupational exposure. A total of 4694 (36%) respondents reported >1 type of exposure.
‡Among those reporting any occupational violence. A total of 1557 (12%) respondents reported >1 type of violence.
CBN, chemical, biological and nuclear; PPE, personal protective equipment.