Citation

Valls Ramon-Cortés J, Casas Cascante C, Dalmau Pons I, Trenchs Sainz de La Maza V, Luaces Cubells C, Parra Cotanda C. An. Pediatr. (Engl. Ed.) 2024; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.anpede.2024.07.001

PMID

38987073

Abstract

In our society, workplace violence is an alarming phenomenon: according to the latest report on aggressions to health care professionals in the national health system of Spain (2022), there were 20 reported attacks per 1000 professionals. Such violence is frequently considered "inevitable" and "part of the job", and emergency care and psychiatric care settings are the ones where the rate of aggression is highest.1 Any hostile behaviour (HB) can cause, in addition to physical injuries, psychological harm, so it is important to study and prevent any type of attack, as recommended by various professional boards.1

To date, few studies have been conducted on the aggressions experienced by health care workers in paediatric emergency departments (PEDs). Consequently, we designed a study with the following objectives: (1) to describe HBs in the PED of a children's hospital and (2) to determine whether there were significant differences compared to other care settings in the same hospital.

We conducted a single centre retrospective observational and descriptive study in a tertiary care children's hospital serving medically complex patients. In our hospital, health care staff report experienced HBs on a voluntary basis through an electronic record system. The following variables are documented in these reports: care setting (emergency care, inpatient care, outpatient clinics, other), professional category, characteristics of the attack (mild verbal, verbal with gestures, mild physical and property damage), attacker, reason for attack, measures taken and impact on the health care worker.

The study included every recorded report (after anonymization) filed between...

Language: en