Staff injuries from inpatient violence

Abstract

A one-year study of staff injuries from inpatient violence at a large forensic state hospital found that 121 staff members sustained 135 injuries. Nursing staff sustained 120 of the injuries, for a rate of 16 injuries per 100 staff, and professional staff sustained three injuries, for a rate of 1.9 injuries per 100 staff. The majority of injuries to nursing staff (9.9 per 100 staff) were sustained while containing patient violence, and the rest were the result of assault (6.1 per 100 staff). Male nursing staff were nearly twice as likely as female staff to be injured and nearly three times as likely to receive containment-related injuries. The highest rates of injury were noted among ward nursing leadership. Injuries by assault were more likely than containment-related injuries to be head injuries, to cause more than three weeks' absence from work, and to affect more recently hired staff. The usefulness of the methodology in analyzing patterns of staff injury from inpatient violence is discussed.