Creating work environments that are violence free.

Workplace violence is a global phenomenon with recent research demonstrating that the incidence of violence is high and increasing, particularly in health-care settings. The current study reported the prevalence of workplace violence in nursing and examined the impact of it on nurses' work life and health based on a national Canadian survey. Results demonstrated that workplace violence significantly increases the likelihood of nurses' absenteeism, job dissatisfaction and poor physical and mental health, and can negatively impact quality of nursing care. Various workplace violence interventions and the need for further research in addressing the issue of violence are discussed.

The use of electronic monitoring (MEMS) to evaluate antipsychotic compliance in outpatients with schizophrenia.

Compliance with antipsychotic treatment is a well-recognized concern in the ongoing management of individuals with schizophrenia. The present investigation incorporated the Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS) to evaluate compliance in a group of outpatients (N=52) with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Evaluating compliance as a dichotomous variable and using a threshold of 80%, the rate of noncompliance as measured by MEMS was 52%, considerably higher than self-report (3%), clinician rating (24%) and pill count (25%). The ability of treating clinicians to predict compliance/noncompliance was limited: 13 of 31 (42%) subjects they rated as compliant were noncompliant while 4 of 9 (44%) rated as noncompliant were actually compliant according to MEMS. Factors most consistently associated with noncompliance were higher total symptom scores and dosing complexity i.e., greater than once daily. Based on MEMS data, the overall mean level of compliance was 66%; however, it remains unclear as to what threshold is associated with a compromise in clinical response. More sophisticated measurement tools such as MEMS may assist us in better understanding how level and pattern of antipsychotic noncompliance, factors that at present remain poorly understood, impact on symptom exacerbation.