[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 228 (Tuesday, November 27, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70781-70782]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-28723]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-13-0914]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a 
list of information collection requests under review by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these requests, call 
(404) 639-7570 or send an email to [email protected]. Send written comments 
to CDC Desk Officer, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC 
20503 or by fax to (202) 395-5806. Written comments should be received 
within 30 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in NJ Healthcare Facilities 
(0920-0914, Expiration 1/31/2015)--Revision--National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    Healthcare workers are nearly five times more likely to be victims 
of violence than workers in all industries combined. While healthcare 
workers are not at particularly high risk for job-related homicide, 
nearly 60% of all nonfatal assaults occurring in private industry are 
experienced in healthcare. Six states have enacted laws to reduce 
violence against healthcare workers by requiring workplace violence 
prevention programs. However, little is understood about how effective 
these laws are in reducing violence against healthcare workers.
    The objective of the proposed study is three-fold: (1) To examine 
healthcare facility compliance with the New Jersey Violence Prevention 
in Health Care Facilities Act, (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of the 
regulations in this Act in reducing assault injuries to workers. Our 
central hypothesis is that facilities with high compliance with the 
regulations will have lower rates of

[[Page 70782]]

employee violence-related injury, and (3) evaluate the assault injury 
rate. The long-term goal of the proposed project is to reduce violence 
against healthcare workers.
    CDC currently has approval to evaluate the legislation at hospitals 
and to conduct a nurse survey. Data collection is ongoing at the 
hospitals and for the nurse survey.
    This revision will add two new respondent groups: Nursing homes and 
home healthcare aides. We will conduct face-to-face interviews with the 
Chairs of the Violence Prevention Committees in 20 nursing homes who 
are in charge of overseeing compliance efforts. The purpose of the 
interviews is to measure compliance to the state regulations. The 
details of their Workplace Violence Prevention Program are in their 
existing policies and procedures. We will also collect assault injury 
data from nursing homes' violent event reports 3 years pre-regulation 
(2009-2011) and 3 years post-regulation (2012-2014). This data is 
captured in existing Occupational Safety and Health Administration 
(OSHA) logs and is publicly available. The purpose of collecting these 
data is to evaluate changes in assault injury rates before and after 
enactment of the regulations.
    We will also conduct a home healthcare aide survey (4000 
respondents or 1333 annually). This survey will describe the workplace 
violence prevention training that home healthcare aides receive. Home 
healthcare aides will be recruited from a mailing list of home 
healthcare aides certified from the State of New Jersey Division of 
Consumer Affairs Board of Nursing. The mailing list was selected as the 
population source of workers due to the ability to capture all home 
healthcare aides in New Jersey.
    We will test our central hypothesis by accomplishing the following 
specific aims:
    1. Compare the comprehensiveness of nursing home workplace violence 
prevention programs before and after enactment of the New Jersey 
regulations in nursing homes; Working hypothesis: Based on our 
preliminary research, we hypothesize that enactment of the regulations 
will improve the comprehensiveness of nursing home workplace violence 
prevention program policies, procedures and training. Questions will 
also be asked about barriers and facilitators to developing the 
violence prevention program. These data will be collected in the post-
regulation time period.
    2. Describe the workplace violence prevention training home 
healthcare aides receive following enactment of the New Jersey 
regulations; Working hypothesis: Based on our preliminary research, we 
hypothesize that home healthcare aides receive at least 80% of the 
workplace violence prevention training components mandated in the New 
Jersey regulations.
    3. Examine patterns of assault injuries to nursing home workers 
before and after enactment of the regulations; Working hypothesis: 
Based on our preliminary research, we hypothesize that rates of assault 
injuries to nursing home workers will decrease following enactment of 
the regulations.
    A contractor will conduct the interviews, collect the nursing 
homes' policies and procedures, and collect the assault injury data.
    No employee or perpetrator identifiable information will be 
collected.
    The Health Professionals and Allied Employees union will promote 
the survey to their members. To maintain the worker's anonymity, the 
home healthcare agency in which he/she works will not be identified. 
There are no costs to respondents other than their time. The estimated 
total annualized burden hours are 960.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                  Number of      Average burden
            Respondents                    Form name            Number of       responses per     per response
                                                               respondents       respondent         (in hrs)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hospital Administrators............  Evaluation of                        17                 1                 1
                                      Hospital Workplace
                                      Violence Prevention
                                      Program (C1).
Hospital Administrators............  Committee Chair                      17                 1                 1
                                      Interview (C2).
Hospital Administrators............  Employee Incident                    17                 1                 1
                                      Information (C3).
Nursing Home Administrators........  Evaluation of Nursing                 7                 1                 1
                                      Home Workplace
                                      Violence Prevention
                                      Program (C1).
Nursing Home Administrators........  Committee Chair                       7                 1                 1
                                      Interview (C2).
Nursing Home Administrators........  Employee Incident                     7                 1                 1
                                      Information (C3).
Nurses (RN and LPN)................  Healthcare Facility                1333                 1             20/60
                                      Workplace Violence
                                      Prevention Programs
                                      Nurse Survey (C4).
Home Healthcare Aides..............  Healthcare Facility                1333                 1             20/60
                                      Workplace Violence
                                      Prevention Programs
                                      Home Healthcare Aide
                                      Survey (C5).
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    Dated: November 19, 2012.
Ron A. Otten,
Director, Office of Scientific Integrity (OSI), Office of the Associate 
Director for Science (OADS), Office of the Director, Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2012-28723 Filed 11-26-12; 8:45 am]
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