The need to protect nurses and physicians in home environments has accelerated as a direct result of disruptions caused by COVID 19, an increase in mental health issues and the push to keep elderly people living at home longer. 

More and more healthcare workers are calling for devices that can protect them in the home such as mobile duress. Duress needs to be mobile as workers may not be able to reach fixed alarms and responders don’t know where they are if they move. The concept of ‘hospital in the home’ or virtual care has gained traction and will only accelerate in future years. Violence incidents are on the increase Occupational violence against healthcare workers is a global problem with a systematic review conducted by researchers Liu et al showing a whopping 61.9 per cent of workers reporting exposure to occupational violence. The same researchers also found that healthcare professionals are more vulnerable to occupational violence than people employed in other occupation¹.

Further they found that compared to European countries, Australasia and North America had higher rates of violence committed by patients in the workplace but suggested this difference may be related to under reporting in European countries. The same researchers also found incidents of physical violence were highest in mental health and emergency department settings and in nurses and doctors, those working in urban settings and clinical staff working longer hours¹.