Category: Violence

Help for the Holidays: Preventing Fatigue, Violence, and Stress in Retail

  The holidays can be the most stressful time of the year—especially for retail workers who often work long hours and irregular shifts. These workers might also deal with crowds, violence, and robberies. This blog highlights the risk of fatigue, violence, and stress for workers in retail stores and provides strategies for making retail work Read More >

Posted on by Cammie Chaumont Menéndez, Casey Chosewood, Adrienne Eastlake, Jennifer Lincoln, Suzanne Marsh, Jeannie Nigam, Donna Pfirman, Hope TiesmanLeave a comment

Safety for Workers in Elementary and Secondary Schools

As teachers, school administrators, students, and parents get ready to go back to school, safety should be top of mind. School safety most often emphasizes keeping students safe from violence, bullying and harassment, and the influence of substance use (NCSSLE, 2023), but it should also include the safety of those who work in schools. To Read More >

Posted on by Makayla Hughes and Kitty J. Hendricks, MA1 Comment

Violence Against Public Health Workers

  Many workers who were on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced increased physical and mental stress. One study found that 70% of U.S. workers felt more stressed at work during COVID-19 than at any other point in their professional careers [1]. Public health workers, including epidemiologists, contact tracers, laboratory scientists, community health workers, Read More >

Posted on by Hope M. Tiesman, PhD; Scott A. Hendricks, MS; Douglas M. Wiegand, PhD; Barbara Lopes-Cardozo, MD; Carol Y. Rao, ScD; Libby Horter, MPH; Ramona Byrkit, MPH; and Charles E. Rose, PhD.1 Comment

Highlights from a New Report on Indicators of Workplace Violence

  Federal agencies recently published a joint statistical report on workplace violence entitled Indicators of Workplace Violence, 2019. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) examined incidents of fatal and nonfatal violence that occurred against persons at work or on Read More >

Posted on by Erika Harrell, Jeremy Petosa, Nicole Dangermond, Susan Derk, Dan Hartley, and Audrey Reichard3 Comments

Workplace Violence Research

  In the 1980’s a series of shootings at post offices drew public attention towards the issue of workplace violence. While mass shootings receive a lot of media attention, they actually account for a small number of workplace violence events. NIOSH has been studying workplace violence since the 1980s. In 1993, NIOSH released the document Read More >

Posted on by Dawn Castillo, MPH; Cammie Chaumont Menéndez, PhD, MPH, MS; Dan Hartley, EdD; Suzanne Marsh, MPA; Tim Pizatella, MSIE; Marilyn Ridenour, BSN, MPH; and Hope M. Tiesman, PhD36 Comments

Home Healthcare Workers: A Growing and Diverse Workforce at High Risk for Workplace Violence

  Home healthcare workers provide healthcare services to millions of Americans who need assistance at home. Home healthcare workers work closely with patients and often are in close contact with the public while they provide healthcare services to patients. Both situations can pose increased risks for exposure to workplace violence [1],[2]. The issue of violence Read More >

Posted on by Tamara Felice Small, PhD; Susan Goodwin Gerberich, PhD, MSPH; Anthony Oliveri, PhD, MPH, CIH, CSP; Christina Socias-Morales, DrPH; Dawn Castillo; and Richard Olawoyin, PhD, CSP12 Comments

Retail Worker Safety and Health during the Holidays

The practice of American shoppers looking for a deal on the Friday after Thanksgiving has evolved into a four-day retail event ending with Cyber Monday.  This shopping bonanza leading off the holiday shopping season has implications for workers who may have long workdays and expanded work schedules. The approaching season offers an ideal time for Read More >

Posted on by Vern Putz Anderson, PhD, CPE; Jeannie A.S. Nigam, MS; Donna Pfirman; Seleen Collins; and Debbie Hornback, MS 1 Comment

Convenience Store Compliance to Reduce Workplace Violence

  Robbery-related homicides and assaults are the leading cause of death in retail businesses. Workers in convenience stores have a 7 times higher rate of work-related homicide than workers in other industries (2 homicides per 100,000 workers vs. 0.28 per 100,000 workers). There are disparities among the homicide victims, too. Specifically, black, Asian, and Hispanic Read More >

Posted on by Cammie Chaumont Menéndez, PhD, MPH, MS, and Thomas Cunningham, PhD 9 Comments

Workplace Suicide

  The research literature on occupation and suicide has consistently identified several occupations at high risk for suicide: farmers, medical doctors, law enforcement officers, and soldiers. However, there are few studies examining suicides that occur in U.S. workplaces. Recently published research from NIOSH, examined suicides occurring in U.S. workplaces between 2003 and 2010 and compared workplace Read More >

Posted on by Hope M. Tiesman, PhD 11 Comments

Violence in Healthcare

  In the healthcare setting, workplace violence may occur in many forms including: an active shooter, a disruptive patient, or as ongoing incivility from a colleague. The most commonly reported form of violence in healthcare is from the disruptive patient or patient’s family member. In 2013, healthcare workers reported an estimated 9,200 workplace violence incidents Read More >

Posted on by Dan Hartley, EdD2 Comments

Free On-line Violence Prevention Training for Nurses

In 2012, the Healthcare and Social Assistance (HCSA) sector was amongst the largest industry sectors in the U.S. employing an estimated 19.4 million workers (13.5% of the total workforce)[1]. On average, over the last decade, U.S. healthcare workers have accounted for two-thirds of the nonfatal workplace violence injuries in all industries involving days away from Read More >

Posted on by Dan Hartley, EdD; Marilyn Ridenour, BSN, MPH 34 Comments

Reducing Taxicab Homicides

Taxicab drivers face one of the highest homicide rates of any occupation.  While rates of homicide have declined among the general working population (in 2010, 0.37 per 100,000 employed), they remain high in the taxicab industry (7.4 per 100,000 employed for the same year).  In the early 1990s, bullet-resistant partitions were the dominant safety equipment Read More >

Posted on by Cammie Chaumont Menéndez, PhD, MPH, MS44 Comments

Women’s Health at Work

This week is Women’s Health Week. With over 58% of U.S. women in the labor force[i], the workplace must be considered when looking at women’s overall health.   We must keep in mind that susceptibility to hazards can be different for men and women.  Additionally, women face different workplace health challenges than men partly because men Read More >

Posted on by Naomi Swanson,Ph.D.; Julie Tisdale-Pardi, MA; CAPT Leslie MacDonald, Sc.D.; Hope M. Tiesman, Ph.D. 62 Comments

Horrible Bosses: Workplace violence in the real world

The summer blockbuster highlights the very real issue of workplace violence. Read More >

Posted on by Dan Hartley, EdD17 Comments

Assaults on Nursing Assistants

Recent NIOSH research finds that 35% of nursing assistants working in nursing homes reported injuries from aggression by residents and 12% reported human bites. These reports of workplace violence are even higher among those working in homes with special units for Alzheimer patients.  Read More >

Posted on by SangWoo Tak, ScD, MPH11 CommentsTags

Violence Against Pharmacists

Violence against pharmacists differs from violence experienced by other healthcare workers. Increasingly, pharmacists face violence from robberies at their workplace. Across the United States, reports of pharmacy robberies specifically related to the theft of Oxycontin and Vicodin have been reported.  Read More >

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Preventing Violence against Taxicab Drivers

Taxicab drivers face a very high risk of workplace homicide, even greater than those working in law enforcement and security. NIOSH is proposing an evaluation of the effectiveness of cameras in preventing violence against taxicab drivers.  Read More >

Posted on by Cammie Chaumont Menéndez, PhD, MPH, MS 29 Comments

Violence Against Teachers and School Staff

Because of an increase in the prevalence of school-based policies aimed at reducing violence in youth and recent reports suggesting that teachers and other school staff may face daily threats of workplace violence, NIOSH was prompted to examine risk factors and prevention policies and practices for workplace violence for K-12 school staff. Read More >

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