Search

Introduction: The prevalence of violence to first responders is reported in ranges of approximately 40% to 90%. Pennsylvania has a felonious assault statute to address such violence, but the prosecutorial process has been noted to cause first-responder dissatisfaction., Methods: An exploratory qualitative study using individual interviews with snowball sampling was conducted with the Philadelphia District Attorney's office to understand the prosecutorial process when a first responder is assaulted and injured in a line of duty. The Philadelphia Fire Department provided a list of first responders who sustained a work-related injury from a patient or bystander assault so that particular cases could be discussed during the interviews., Results: Emergent themes fell into two categories: factors that lead to a charge (prosecutorial merit, intent, and victim investment), and the judge's discretion in sentencing ("part of the job" mentality, concern for the defendant, and the justice system's offender focus). Immediately actionable tertiary prevention recommendations for fire departments, labor unions, and district attorney's offices were developed., Conclusion: Violence against fire-based emergency medical service (EMS) responders is a persistent and preventable workplace hazard. While felonious assault statutes express society's value that it is unacceptable to harm a first responder, this study found that such statutes failed to provide satisfaction to victims and that support when going through the court process is lacking. Assaulted EMS responders, their employers, and labor unions would benefit from the recommendations provided herein to help them extract a stronger sense of procedural justice from the legal process., (© 2019 The Authors. American Journal of Industrial Medicine Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Objective: Numerous localities have mandated that chain restaurants post nutrition information at the point of purchase. However, some studies suggest that consumers are not highly responsive to menu labelling. The present qualitative study explored influences on full-service restaurant customers’ noticing and using menu labelling., Design: Five focus groups were conducted with thirty-six consumers. A semi-structured script elicited barriers and facilitators to using nutrition information by showing excerpts of real menus from full-service chain restaurants., Setting: Participants were recruited from a full-service restaurant chain in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, in September 2011., Subjects: Focus group participants were mostly female, African American, with incomes <$US 60 000, mean age 36 years and education 14·5 years. At recruitment, 33 % (n 12) reported changing their order after seeing nutrition information on the menu., Results: Three themes characterized influences on label use in restaurants: nutrition knowledge, menu design and display, and normative attitudes and behaviours. Barriers to using labels were low prior knowledge of nutrition; displaying nutrition information using codes; low expectations of the nutritional quality of restaurant food; and restaurant discounts, promotions and social influences that overwhelmed interest in nutrition and reinforced disinterest in nutrition. Facilitators were higher prior knowledge of recommended daily intake; spending time reading the menu; having strong prior interest in nutrition/healthy eating; and being with people who reinforced dietary priorities., Conclusions: Menu labelling use may increase if consumers learn a few key recommended dietary reference values, understand basic energy intake/expenditure scenarios and if chain restaurants present nutrition information in a user-friendly way and promote healthier items.