Impact of the Problem to Healthcare Systems
The issue of workplace violence, including patient-on-patient, patient-on-staff incidents, and inadequate training, has numerous effects on patients, medical staff, and the healthcare system as a whole. Overall, these consequences may be divided into several categories, including emotional, psychological, physical, financial, and social effects, as well as decreased quality of care and relationships with clients (Schablon et al., 2018).
Physical
Firstly, patient-on-patient and patient-on-staff violence can result in severe injuries, requiring the victim to undergo treatment and leading to the medical facility facing legal issues (Basfr et al., 2019).
Psychological
Secondly, even verbal aggression can adversely affect both employees and patients, resulting in mental traumas, stress, anxiety, and other unpleasant consequences. For example, a nurse who regularly experiences verbal attacks from patients can have reduced motivation, lose empathy and desire to help and develop depression or other mental conditions (Dafny & Beccaria, 2020). Emotional distress and burnout are frequent outcomes of workplace violence.
Social
Further, whenever these rates of violent behaviors grow, communities’ trust and confidence in medical institutions decline as they see that professionals fail to manage the actions of their clients. The latter might even result in temporarily reduced national health levels because of individuals’ doubts and avoidance of seeking medical support (Blouin & Podjasek, 2019). All these outcomes are a source of worse quality of care. According to Zhang et al. (2021), medical workers experiencing violence are in distress, and patients who face aggressive behaviors from others may lose their trust in nurses because of not feel safe and protected.
Lastly, poorly trained medical workers are at risk of not properly managing such demonstrations of violence, meaning that adverse situations can occur and cause a negative public reaction (Schablon et al., 2018). For instance, a medical worker experiencing burnout or not being adequately educated about addressing aggression might exceed authority and harm the troubled patient, making the aggressor become the victim.
Cost of the Problem
Another severe impact of the problem in question is its financial impact on the healthcare system. It is noticeable that medical facilities, individuals, and employees can face financial struggles because of workplace patient-on-patient and patient-on-staff violence. Statistics show that “treating and preventing injuries to workers in 2016 added an estimated $429 million in direct and indirect costs to US health systems” (Grossman & Choucair, 2019, p. 1638). On average, hospitals spend $15,500 annually in lost wages (OSHA, 2015).
One effect of the problem is that “many rural organizations face economic challenges and cannot financially support the costs of recruitment and retention” precisely because of rates of violence (Blouin & Podjasek, 2019). Thus, “the average cost of turnover for a bedside RN ranges from $37,700 to $58,400 resulting in the average hospital losing $5.2M – $8.1M” (Richardson, 2020, para. 4). To hire new nurses, up to $103,000 can be spent by an employer (OSHA, 2015). In other words, levels of aggressive behaviors toward other patients or medical workers grow, and nurses’ performance and desire to work decrease.
Further, it is required that employers provide medical workers with adequate training and education about managing aggressive behaviors, and these are additional costs for healthcare leaders (Zhang et al., 2021). According to Beck (2018), approximately $280 million and $1.1 billion were spent in 2016 on the preparedness and training of workers, respectively.
Also, it is essential to mention that one way for ED and psychiatric settings to retain employees willing to leave their workplace because of patient aggression is by offering extra compensation. Thus, in 2016, average costs for compensating medical employees were 46% higher than salary and wages alone (Beck, 2018). While this might be a good approach, it is eventually quite costly (Basfr et al., 2019). As for patients who suffer physically from other healthcare clients, they need to pay for further treatment and rehabilitation in case their injuries are serious, but no clear statistics are available to illustrate these costs.
References
Basfr, W., Hamdan, A., & Al-Habib, S. (2019). Workplace violence against nurses in psychiatric hospital settings: Perspectives from Saudi Arabia. Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, 19(1), e19-e25. Web.
Beck, D. L. (2018). Hazardous to your health: Violence in the health-care workplace. ASH Clinical News. Web.
Blouin, A. S., & Podjasek, K. (2019). The continuing saga of nurse staffing: Historical and emerging challenges. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(4), 221-227. Web.
Dafny, H. A., & Beccaria, G. (2020). I do not even tell my partner: Nurses’ perceptions of verbal and physical violence against nurses working in a regional hospital. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(17-18), 3336-3348. Web.
Grossman, D. C., & Choucair, B. (2019). Violence and the US health care sector: Burden and response. Health Affairs, 38(10), 1638-1645. Web.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA]. (2015). Workplace violence in healthcare. [PDF document]. Web.
Richardson, C. (2020). Healthcare heroes are getting assaulted and it’s costing millions. 911 cellular. Web.
Schablon, A., Wendeler, D., Kozak, A., Nienhaus, A., & Steinke, S. (2018). Prevalence and consequences of aggression and violence towards nursing and care staff in Germany-A survey. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(6), 1274. Web.
Zhang, J., Zheng, J., Cai, Y., Zheng, K., & Liu, X. (2021). Nurses’ experiences and support needs following workplace violence: A qualitative systematic review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30(1-2), 28-43. Web.