Perceptions of violence in the emergency department

This research investigates the assertion that violence in hospital emergency departments and concern about violence (fear of crime/fear of victimization) are significant environmental stressors in the workplace. It is an accepted fact that violence occurs in the urban emergency department. There is much anecdotal evidence of the effect that these incidents have on emergency medicine personnel, but few controlled or systematic studies. This study helps to fill that gap. This study used the qualitative methods of field observation and intensive, semi-structured interviews to generate rich data and investigate violence and concern about violence to develop an understanding of how these nurse subjects perceive their work environment. This study utilized Lazarus' transactional theory of stress as a theoretical framework. This theory acknowledges that stress occurs as an interaction between the individual and the environment. This study found that nurses expect a certain amount of violence within their workplace. The most surprising finding is that violence is more of a threat in the suburban emergency department than the urban emergency department. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that the urban emergency department is prepared for the eventuality of violence, the suburban emergency department, as of this writing, is not.