Violence in the workplace: awareness and prevention

Occupational violence is of growing interest to both individuals and organisations in the health field. Not surprisingly, staff who work directly on the front line are more vulnerable to episodes of physical violence from the general public. However, violence manifests in a number of ways, and any person in the workplace can experience it at anytime. Occupational violence should be viewed as an event to be identified, understood and managed, with a consequent need to identify types of violence in order to provide policy direction and preventive strategies to enhance workplace safety. Violence cannot be totally prevented but the risk of violence and its negative impacts on the individual can be reduced with carefully considered planningand swift action following a violent event. This paper reports various types of violence, the magnitude of the problem and who is at risk. Policy initiatives are suggested and methods of prevention discussed.