Friday 12 June 2015

Violence against health care workers - exploring why patients do it

The American Medical Association (AMA) is to support more research to find interventions to help deal with violence against health care workers. The statistics are quite revealing. According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics in the US health care workers experience the most nonfatal workplace violence compared to other professions, with attacks at hospital and social service settings accounting for almost 70 percent of nonfatal workplace assaults.
Research suggests that health-care workers are hit, kicked, scratched, bitten, spat on, threatened and harassed by patients with surprising regularity (especially nurses). The current health care environment often requires that health care workers maintain optimal performance even in the immediate chaotic aftermath of workplace violence. Workplace violence prevention has not been given the priority it rates.
The rates of violence in both developing and developed countries strongly suggest that the problem is a system issue, and not a small minority.
Violence may represent an opportunity to revaluate the degree to which we involve patients and the public in healthcare delivery, healthcare policy and healthcare research. Health care workers must be appalled that individuals are ‘fighting’ against the people trying to help them, but answering such questions may help to provide a more ‘patient’ view of the healthcare journey. We can’t seem to really involve patients and the public (for a myriad of reasons), and the violence issue is part of this.  


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