Study findings

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
has announced findings from a recent
study showing that verbal abuse,
intimidation and attacks are still very
real threats faced by community
based nurses on a regular basis. The
study highlights some worrying
statistics for NHS staff that regularly
carry out lone working as part of their
jobs: over 60% of nurses taking part
have been subjected to abuse in the
last two years; over 10% have been
victims of physical abuse over the
same time period; nearly 40% felt risk
to lone workers has increased in the
last two years; and over 35% felt
factors such as increased substance
abuse was contributing to that risk.

Supported by Reliance High-Tech
(supplier of the Reliance Protect
solution to lone workers in the NHS)
and Connexion2 (manufacturer of
the identicom lone worker device),
the study was conducted jointly by
the RCN and Sheffield Hallam
University and involved nearly 800
RCN members taking part in a webbased
questionnaire.