The “costs” of violence and abuse suffered by ER operator

Introduction: violence in the work place (WPV Workplace violence) is now universally recognized as one of the main problems in public healthcare settings worldwide, and ED nurses, especially those engaged in Triage activities, are the most vulnerable. Numerous international studies have investigated in depth the problem of violence to operators, despite the issuance of specific “instructions” by the Ministry of Health regarding this issue. Aim: the aim of this work is to analyze the extent of the phenomenon of aggressions in terms of frequency and gravity of the results, and therefore, highlight not only the economic impact in terms of costs but also the impact of violent episodes on the human and professional aspects. Materials and methods: through research in the main referral databases (PubMed and CINAHL) as well as on the Internet (Google Scholar search engines) we gathered and analyzed data from the most recent international and Italian articles in literature reviews dealing with this issue. Results: recent studies conducted in 15 Emergency stations of 14 Italian regions representing the entire nation, evidenced that 90% of nurses working in the ER have been verbally attacked or witnessed the aggressions suffered by colleagues (95% of the sample); 35% suffered from physical violence and more than half (52%) witnessed these aggressions. At least a third of nurses (31%) had to undergo medical care, with prognosis of up to 5 days (13%), from 5 to 15 days (11%), or more than 15 days (6%). Conclusions: violence towards nurses in the A&E department not only has a great economic impact, but it also generates above all ªindirect costsº related to psychological damage caused by aggressions. Determination, self-esteem, and safety are highly undermined by aggression episodes. The burnout of A&E operators is however, also nurtured by this phenomenon.