Document Type

Capstone Experience

Graduation Date

12-2021

Degree Name

Master of Public Health

Department

Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health

First Committee Member

Chandran Achutan, PhD

Second Committee Member

John Hauser

Third Committee Member

Elizabeth Lyden, MS

Abstract

Violence is a major source of workplace injury in the medical profession. Peer reviewed literature is lacking for workers that have injuries through violence from clients who have intellectual disabilities. Literature for hospital security is also lacking. In this study of workplace violence, we compared injuries among the occupational groups at an academic medical center from 2017-2020. We hypothesized that violence will be similar across the years. Occupational injury and illness data was obtained from an academic medical center. The number of violence cases was divided by the total number of injury cases and reported as a percentage. We found that violent incidents only occurred in four units: Business and Finance (housing the security office), College of Dentistry, College of Medicine, and an institute for intellectual disabilities (Facility A). The overall percentage of injuries with reported descriptors for violence by year were 26% in 2017, 33.4% in 2018, 39% in 2019, and 25.7% in 2020. Facility A had the largest percentage of violence per year, with the highest at 86% in 2019. Data suggests that more attention must be given to violence in this academic medical center as it is more than likely higher than this data set suggests.

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