Evidence-Based Design for Workplace Violence Prevention in Emergency Departments Utilizing CPTED and Space Syntax Analyses

Abstract

Background: Workplace violence (WPV) is a prevalent phenomenon in Egyptian emergency departments (EDs), an issue that threatens an already scarce resource of healthcare workers. Furthermore, changes and modifications are continuously taking place in hospitals, with no consideration to the important role those changes might play in reducing or encouraging WPV behaviors. Objective: This research serves as an initial step in offering answers on how the environmental design of an ED can be modified and manipulated to prevent and control WPV. Accordingly, the objective of this research is to identify the environmental features that potentially influence WPV in the ED. This could provide healthcare designers with the necessary tools to forecast the location of WPV and define the measures needed for a safer working environment. Method: The study comprised a hybrid method approach that evaluates the implementation of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) through field observation and combined with space syntax analyses (SSAs) of the spatial attributes. Results: The results showed a positive relationship between the spatial properties (high integration and connectivity values) and WPV locations. The results also demonstrated that situational factors as natural surveillance played an important role in displacing the WPV locations. Conclusions: The contribution of this research lies in elaborating the SSA and CPTED from a conceptual to an empirical level. Combining those tools will help identify the location of WPV in the ED and hence facilitates successful future environmental intervention strategies.