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A recent tragedy highlights the risk for psychiatric-unit workers. Last month, Donna Gross, 54, a psychiatric technician at the Napa State Hospital in California,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], was strangled to death, and a patient from the hospital is being held on suspicion of murder.
Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health analyzed data on nursing-home employees from the 2004 National Nursing Assistant Survey and learned the following about on-the-job violence:


Violence against healthcare workers is alarmingly common (see this past post about violence in the ER), and nurses and other personal care workers are most affected. A 2008 New York Times article, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, reported that nursing homes and psychiatric units are the most dangerous settings for healthcare workers.

Thirty-four percent of nursing assistants surveyed reported experiencing physical injuries from residents' aggression in the previous year. Mandatory overtime (odds ratio [OR] = 1.65; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.22, 2.24) and not having enough time to assist residents with their activities of daily living (OR = 1.49; 95% CI = 1.25, 1.7 were strongly associated with experiencing injuries from assaults. Nursing assistants employed in nursing homes with Alzheimer care units were more likely to experience such injuries, including being bitten by residents.
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