Abstract
Emergency departments (EDs) are high-risk places for Workplace Violence (WPV). In Italy, this phenomenon is scarcely investigated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence, experiencing and perception of WPV in the general ED (GED), paediatric ED (PED) and obstetric–gynaecological ED (OGED) of the teaching hospital Azienda Ospedaliera in Padua (AOP). We led a cross-sectional study among the GED, OGED and PED staffs, submitting an anonymous questionnaire, regarding personal information, verbal and physical aggression experiences, risk factors and proposals for corrective actions. Our sample consists of 73 people from GED, 45 from OGED and 53 from PED. Aggressions are common. Verbal aggressions are almost never recorded, even in the case of physical aggressions, 41% did not signal the event. Both in GED and in OGED, most of the staff (68.9% and 75.0%, respectively) underwent aggression by neither psychiatric nor substance abuser patients (PSAPs). Physical aggressions are more common in GED than in OGED and in PED; most of professionals were assaulted by PSAPs. In all EDs, verbal or physical assault has been lived through by anger, resignation or fear, rarely by indifference. Professionals think there are structural characteristics and risk factors that could be corrected. They do not know how to manage assaults and would deem it useful training meetings with experts. Our results regarding how staff perceive and experience violence in the ED concern a local situation, that nevertheless reflect current evidence about the topic of WPV which plagues EDs across the globe.
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The authors wish to thank Mrs Liliana Paoli for the linguistic review.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by MZ, GM and FT. The first draft the manuscript was written by MZ and FDR and all authors commented on previous version of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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There are no potential conflicts of interest or any financial or personal relationship with other people or organizations that could inappropriately bias conduct and findings of this study.
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Our work does not involve any violation of human and animal rights and the health workers interviewed were obviusly willing.
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Zoleo, M., Della Rocca, F., Tedeschi, F. et al. Violence against health workers: findings from three emergency departments in the teaching hospital of Padua, Italy . Intern Emerg Med 15, 1067–1074 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-020-02290-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-020-02290-7