Background: Reduction or prevention of violence is one of the fields of preventive interventions in nursing homes. To prove the effectiveness of appropriate interventions, valid instruments are crucial to measure violence.
Methods: Between November 2019 and May 2020, a systematic search for studies and instruments was conducted in relevant databases and reference directories assessing violent behaviour by employees towards residents, by residents towards employees and resident-to-resident abuse.
Results: 24 instruments were identified. 8 instruments capture staff-to-resident violence, 14 capture resident-to-staff violence, 3 resident-to-resident aggression, and 5 instruments are not exactly attributable to the constellation of violence. No instrument covers all three situations of violence. Four of the instruments used to capture violence by staff cover all forms of personal violence. Validity and reliability data are inadequate.
Discussion: At present, there is no tool that fully depicts violence in resident homes and is suitable for measuring the effectiveness of interventions. There are sufficient tools for the individual constellations of violence that represent all forms of violence. Not all instruments could be procured in their original form, and even available instruments did not always provide information on the development of the instruments and a possible review of their quality.
Conclusion: There is a lack of an internationally comparable instrument representing elder abuse in the inpatient setting with sufficient validity and reliability.
Keywords: Elder abuse; Fragebögen; Gewalt am Arbeitsplatz; Gewalt gegen Ältere; Nursing homes; Questionnaire; Stationäre Pflege; Systematic review; Systematische Übersicht; Workplace violence.
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