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Full-Text Articles in Criminology
Penalty Enhancement Laws And The Reporting Of Patient Assaults On Emergency Department Nurses, Thomas Runkle
Penalty Enhancement Laws And The Reporting Of Patient Assaults On Emergency Department Nurses, Thomas Runkle
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Assaults on emergency department nurses by patients are higher than any other occupation in the private sector. Professional nursing organizations have lobbied for penalty enhancement laws that increase the categorization of assaulting a nurse on duty from a misdemeanor to a felony. As of 2015, 32 states have implemented these laws. Yet, low assault reporting rates by nurses remains a problem, and little is known about whether penalty enhancements improved reporting rates. The purpose of this correlational study was to evaluate the impact of penalty enhancement laws on self-reporting of assault on emergency department nurses in 6 Mid-Atlantic cities. Constructs …