A new study has found that workplace violence (WPV) is common among healthcare workers in urban emergency departments (EDs), with 25% involving physical violence. Nurses and younger workers are at higher risk.

"Participants reported experiencing WPV with alarming frequency. This may contribute to high rates of attrition and burnout of a skilled and highly trained workforce," the authors wrote. "Biased WPV against HCWs [healthcare workers] and the personal impact of WPV on HCWs should be specifically studied as health care organizations work to retain their highly skilled workforce and support a more diverse and inclusive health care team," they added.

The study was led by Marla C. Doehring, MD, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, and was published online on November 5, 2024, in JAMA Network Open.

Participation was voluntary and not all shift sheets were returned, which may have led to underreporting, particularly for shifts without incidents. Incomplete demographic data may have limited the analyses, which in turn may have affected the results. Subjective incident coding and the lack of a definition of WPV may have impacted the consistency of the findings. In addition, the limited diversity among healthcare workers and specific urban ED setting may have affected the generalizability of the findings.

The authors did not disclose any funding source or conflicts of interest.