Violence in healthcare - safety measures in occupational injury reports 1987, 1997 and 2007

• In Event: White-Collar Crime at 75: Industries and Case Studies III

Abstract

The individuals exposed to violence in the care sector most often propose measures that are focused on improving the psychosocial work environment. Irrespective of the nature of the risk situation that preceded the violent incident, the staff members would prefer to see that the problem was resolved internally, e.g. by sitting down and discussing what happened with other staff members in the form of guidance counselling or a debriefing. Time and again in the injury reports, the victims refer to the need for adequate resources in the form of time and staffing levels to carry out their work. It is unusual for the occupational injury reports to propose measures that include repressive actions on the part of the police and the justice system.

Although more attention is now being focused on workplace violence, it appears to be a “top-down” perspective that is determining which measures should be introduced. Defining violence as a societal problem produces a situation where the problem must be resolved by means of legal strategies, which leads to the concealment of the underlying causes of the conflict. Knowledge appears to exist at workplaces themselves, but these are not given the resources they need to resolve the problem.

Author

• Sofia Anna Wikman, Stockholm University