Almost every nurse encounters aggression at work, according to a survey conducted by the Supreme Chamber of Nurses and Midwives (NIPiP). Pushing, poking and other forms of physical abuse go hand in hand with threats and insults. The worst is in HEDs and psychiatric wards.
NIPiP survey. Huge scale of aggression towards nurses
The Supreme Chamber of Nurses and Midwives presented the results of the survey on violence. It shows that aggressive behavior in health care facilities is common. Out of 817 nurses and midwives who responded to the survey, only 49 were not aggressive. This means that over 94 percent experienced aggression in the workplace – not only in hospitals, admission rooms and clinics, but also in other institutions, such as nursing homes and even nurseries.
Nurses and midwives indicated that they encounter aggressive behavior on the part of patients (691 reports) almost as often as on the part of their family members (616 reports). Threats, pokes and shoving are the most common.
– Aggressive behavior at emergency departments, insults, curses, slurs, they usually concern people who are desperate, angry that they have to wait. Benefits are not being delivered as they have imagined. There are verbal clashes with the family, explaining things that seem obvious from our point of view: that the order of entering the office is determined by the patient’s condition. The tension is escalating, people waiting in the waiting room are taking photos, scaring them with connections, they will describe us in newspapers and show what is happening at emergency departments – said the head of one of hospital emergency departments in an interview with Medonet.
Read the full text of MedTvoiLokons on violence against nurses: “The patient’s embrace was so strong that they pulled me along with him.” Nurses speak out about aggression in hospitals
New legal solutions are needed
In 2012, the amendment to the Acts on the Nursing and Midwife Professions entered into force, under which representatives of the above-mentioned professions are provided with legal protection enjoyed by a public official. Thus, in the event of an insult or violation of physical integrity, an aggressive patient, family member or other attacker may be fined, restricted or imprisoned. The condition is to report the incident to the relevant services.
Meanwhile, NIPiP points out that most healthcare entities in Poland there are no registers to monitor aggressive behavior or procedures to regulate dealing with violent behavior. The medical staff is not trained to be able to respond to an emergency, and dangerous incidents occur constantly, most often in hospital emergency departments and psychiatric departments.
NIPiP conducts talks with the Ministry of Health on the development of regulations that would oblige entities employing nurses and midwives to provide them with specific safety measures.
The questionnaire on violence against nurses and midwives can still be completed on the NIPiP website. The data that can be collected thanks to it will be forwarded to the ministry.
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