OCCUPATIONAL VIOLENCE

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Workplace violence is the act or threat of violence, ranging from verbal abuse to physical assaults directed toward persons at work or on duty. The impact of workplace violence can range from psychological issues to physical injury, or even death. Violence can occur in any workplace and among any type of worker, but the risk for fatal violence is greater for workers in sales, protective services, and transportation, while the risk for nonfatal violence resulting in days away from work is greatest for healthcare and social assistance workers.

NIOSH funds, conducts, and publishes research focused on risk factors and prevention strategies for workplace violence. Employers, occupational safety and health professionals, and workers can use the following resources to reduce occupational violence.

Online Workplace Violence Prevention Course for Nurses
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This award-winning course completed by more than 45,000 healthcare workers, educates nurses on the scope and nature of violence and how to prevent it in the workplace.

Take the course now to earn your free continuing education units!

Workplace Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Workplace violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: March–October, 2020, United States

This publication used a novel method (media scraping) to obtain timely, recent information on workplace violence events (WVEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Various publicly available online media sources were scanned to identify and describe WVE characteristics related to COVID-19 in the US during the early part of the pandemic (March to October 2020). View the report.

Indicators of Workplace Violence Report
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This report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and NIOSH provides indicators of the current problem of workplace violence in the U.S.

View the report.

Reducing workplace violence in gasoline stations and convenience stores
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This document describes strategies to prevent and reduce workplace violence incidents in gas stations and convenience stores.

Within the re­tail sector, workers in gas sta­tions (often involving sales of conve­nience store items) are at a higher risk of violence compared with workers in other types of retail and the overall work­force.