BackgroundWorkplace violence (WPV) is becoming an issue that needs immediate attention in the United States, especially during this period as more states are adopting the “stand your ground laws to promote worker protection.” This study was conducted to investigate how WPV has contributed to an unsafe environment for nurses and nursing assistants who work in long-term medical care facilities.MethodsA structure questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Three facilities were sampled and 80 nurses and certified nursing assistants participated in the study. Ninety-two percent (n = 74) were female and 8% (n = 6) were male. Approximately 62% were black or African American, approximately 33% were Caucasians, and only 2% were from other ethnicities.ResultsWe found that 65% of the participants had experienced WPV while 41% believed that management shows little or no concern for their safety. Approximately 23% of respondents believed that reporting supervisor's WPV act is an unsafe action. In addition, 22% of those who reported that they have experienced WPV believed that the work environment is not safe to perform their duties. This significant difference in perception of workplace safety between those who had experienced WPV and those who had not was significant (t = 3.95, df = 158, p < 0.0001).ConclusionWPV is an epidemic problem that affects all health-care professionals. The findings of this study could help long-term medical care facilities' management identify the areas to focus on mitigating, controlling, and/or eliminating incidents of WPV.

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Methods available in the literature to estimate the adsorbent capacity from the adsorption isotherm of binary liquid mixtures generally assume that the adsorptives are identical, that the adsorbed phase is monolayer, and that the separation factor (or selectivity) of the system is constant. These assumptions limit the application and reliability of these methods. Based on the concept of the average molecular thickness of the adsorbed-phase layer, an alternative method is proposed that addresses the shortcomings of the existing methods. The substitution ratio, r12, which represents the molecular size differences in the adsorptives, is calculated within ±5% of the experimental values, for the systems tested. The characteristics of the adsorbent selectivities are successfully modeled after some hyperbolic functions. Compared with the experimental results, the proposed method gives a reliable estimate of the adsorbent capacities.

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