Preferences of healthcare workers for security personnel to prevent occupational violence: A discrete choice experiment.
Sameera Senanayake, Jed Duff, Lita Jeffries and 4 others
PMID 40241652WHAT IT FOUND
Healthcare staff strongly preferred security personnel available 24/7 and with extended training, like de-escalation.
They favoured interpersonal skills over physical restraint and ward-based roles over facility-wide coverage. Uniforms did not influence these preferences.
Key findings
01Security personnel being available 24/7 was the most preferred attribute, followed by extended professional development training and mid-level training.
02Staff preferred security personnel with interpersonal skills over physical restraint skills and those located within specific wards rather than across the entire facility.
03The presence or absence of a security uniform did not significantly impact participants' preferences.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The response rate was low at 23%, which may limit how well the findings represent the wider workforce. The study used convenience sampling, so the participants were not randomly selected. The findings are specific to one healthcare service in Queensland and may not apply to other regions or settings. This is a stated preference study, so it measures what staff say they want in hypothetical scenarios, not what actually prevents violence in practice.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Queensland Occupational Violence Strategy Unit. The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these preferences prove that these security features actually reduce violence. The study measures what staff say they want in hypothetical choice tasks, not the real-world effectiveness of these security arrangements.