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.
