Workplace violence prevention training and the prevalence of physical assault among home health and hospice workers

Background: Home care workers are exposed to violence associated with the provision of care to aggressive and disoriented patients. They work in uncontrolled settings, where threats also come from high-crime neighborhoods and patients' homes. Little is known about the workplace violence prevention (WVP) training offered to workers. The purpose of this study is to describe training workers receive and how this training affects the prevalence of assaults. Methods: Home care workers (n=272) from 40 branches in Northern California were interviewed about the WVP training they receive and completed a survey about their experiences with violence. Descriptive analyses were used to examine training characteristics and the prevalence of violent events. Binomial regression analyses were used to examine the association between worker characteristics, training characteristics and the prevalence of physical assault. Results: About half of the workers reported receiving new-hire (48%) or ongoing (44%) WVP training. Verbal assault was the most common type of violence reported over a one-year period (69%), followed by sexual harassment (26%) and physical assault (16%). Workers who did not receive WVP training had a higher prevalence of physical assault (PR=1.10, 95% CI=0.61-2.01).Workers who were less than 50 years of age, minority race, home care aides or those hired on contracts had a higher prevalence of physical assault. Conclusions: Less than half of the workers received WVP training. However, findings suggest that training may be beneficial for reducing the prevalence of assaults. Therefore, working with employers to increase the availability of training programs could improve worker safety.