COMPREHENSIVE OCCUPATIONAL VIOLENCE AND EXTRACTION FRAMEWORK - COVE F

The Comprehensive Occupational Violence and Extraction Framework (COVE-F) is a structured analytic model designed to identify, categorize, and interrupt patterned violence and value extraction occurring within healthcare and other high-risk institutional environments.

Occupational violence is commonly reduced to isolated physical incidents. COVE-F expands the definition to include layered forms of harm, including psychological coercion, retaliation, reputational destruction, regulatory weaponization, economic destabilization, and biologic injury resulting from sustained stress exposure. The framework treats these harms as systemic, foreseeable, and measurable.

COVE-F establishes:

• A taxonomy of occupational violence domains, including physical, psychological, economic, regulatory, and reputational harm
• A parallel extraction model identifying how institutions convert clinician labor, licensure, silence, and risk absorption into financial or reputational gain
• A foreseeability standard grounded in trauma science, stress physiology, and public-health risk modeling
• Escalation mapping across supervisory, regulatory, and enforcement pathways
• Documentation protocols designed for regulatory, civil, and legislative review
• Accountability triggers for leadership, boards, and oversight bodies

The framework integrates trauma science, neuroendocrine stress research, workforce safety literature, civil rights doctrine, and professional licensing standards. It applies a continuity-of-harm logic: injury often occurs at the point of retaliatory escalation or enforcement initiation, rather than at final adjudication.

COVE-F is structured for use in:

• Healthcare workforce safety investigations
• Regulatory complaints and oversight filings
• Legislative reform efforts
• Union and professional association advocacy
• Civil litigation preparation
• Institutional risk audits

The model is jurisdiction-agnostic and designed for adaptation across state and federal oversight systems. It provides a durable evidentiary architecture that separates lawful clinical practice from retaliatory enforcement and institutional self-protection.

This version should be treated as a working draft for expert review and interdisciplinary feedback.

Author: Jennifer Torrez, BSN, RN
Year: 2026
Status: Working draft under active development