To determine the extent of alcohol-related violence in EDs throughout Australia and New Zealand and the impact this has had on ED staff.
A mixed methods, cross-sectional, online survey of ED staff working in Australia and New Zealand conducted between 1 August and 11 September 2022 measuring the frequency of physical or verbal alcohol-related aggression from patients and their relatives/carers; changes to the frequency of alcohol-related occupational violence over the preceding 5 years; the impact of COVID-19 on these presentations; and the perceived impact on ED function and staff well-being.
A total of 1284 ED staff responded, with almost all (97.9%) reporting having experienced verbal aggression and 92.7% experienced physical aggression from alcohol-affected patients at some point over the preceding 12 months. Alcohol-related presentations were significantly associated with negatively impacting patient wait times (86.1%), the care of other patients (87.5%) and other patients in the waiting room (94.6%). A large majority of ED staff also noted that these presentations negatively impacted staff wellness (82.4%), workload (93.1%) and job satisfaction (78.9%). Most (68.2%) believed that the issue of alcohol-related violence had worsened over the preceding 5 years and 46.7% believed that COVID-19 specifically has worsened the incidence of alcohol-related violence in the ED.
Alcohol-related occupational violence and aggression is experienced by almost all ED staff and the prevalence is perceived to be increasing. It results in negative impacts on both staff well-being, the care of other patients and ED function.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 April 2025.
All research outputs
#8,555,551
of 29,695,593 outputs
Outputs from Emergency Medicine Australasia
#958
of 2,151 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#96,782
of 338,195 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Emergency Medicine Australasia
#21
of 38 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 29,695,593 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 71st percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,151 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.5. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 338,195 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 38 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
