Emergency care as a high-risk workplace-Measures to deal with violence against employees

Background Many employees in the field of emergency care experience verbal and physical violence caused by patients or visitors. The aim of this project is to gain insights into which measures are available to deal with violence in emergency care and how employees subjectively evaluate them. Methods A nationwide cross-sectional online survey was conducted in 2020. The questionnaire contained items on violence prevention, intervention, and follow-up measures. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively and free text data according to Mayring's qualitative content analysis. Results A total of 349 respondents, including 115 supervisors participated in the survey. The availability of security staff and standardised reporting of incidents were considered important measures for dealing with violence. Of the managers, 67% reported not having a security service, while 56% claimed that reported incidents of violence were not dealt with in a structured way. A high workload in emergency care can impede the implementation of measures. Overall, the demand for increased support by supervisors and the hospital management became clear. Conclusion It is evident that employees consider certain measures to be effective; however, these measures are often not consistently implemented. There is a need for structured reporting of violent incidents against employees to facilitate a realistic recording of the prevalence. In addition to increasing the (nursing) staff, restricting access for visitors can decrease the conflict potential.

Automated summary

This study investigated the measures for dealing with violence in emergency care and employees' subjective evaluations. The results showed that the availability of security staff and standardized reporting of incidents were considered important measures, but they were not consistently implemented. High workload in emergency care may impede the implementation of measures, and there is a clear demand for increased support from supervisors and hospital management.