How hospital-based violence prevention professionals work: a qualitative study

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Social Work
• Trauma-Informed Care

Background:

• Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIP) are crucial for supporting intentionally injured patients and preventing retaliatory violence.
• Understanding the specific tactics used by violence prevention professionals is essential for program effectiveness and scalability.
• Current knowledge lacks detail on the methods employed by frontline professionals and their transferability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To catalog the diverse tactics used by frontline professionals in hospital-based violence intervention programs.
• To identify the most common and effective strategies employed during patient recovery.
• To understand the application and potential transferability of these intervention tactics.

Main Methods:

• Conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 hospital-based violence prevention professionals.
• Utilized a 10-point patient recovery continuum as a framework for inquiry.
• Applied the Action Actor Context Target Time (AACTT) rubric and inductive thematic analysis to identify and categorize tactics.

Main Results:

• Identified a total of 214 distinct tactics used by violence prevention professionals.
• The most frequently identified tactics were related to the initial patient encounter (n=49), trust-building (n=44), and service navigation (n=39).
• Fewer tactics were identified for patient retention (n=11) and aftercare (n=3), indicating potential areas for program development.

Conclusions:

• Cataloging these tactics provides a foundation for strengthening current HVIP professionals' skillsets.
• The findings can enhance training for future violence prevention personnel.
• This research supports the development of practical toolkits for disseminating and adapting these tactics across diverse HVIP settings.