Workplace violence against healthcare professionals: A systematic review

Workplace violence is defined as an aggression when staff members are abused, intimidated or attacked in circumstances related to their work, including commuting to and from work, involving an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, well-being or health. Violence against healthcare professio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aggression and violent behavior Vol. 51; pp. 101381 - 8
Main Authors: Mento, Carmela, Silvestri, Maria Catena, Bruno, Antonio, Muscatello, Maria Rosaria Anna, Cedro, Clemente, Pandolfo, Gianluca, Zoccali, Rocco A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Tarrytown Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2020
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects:
Aggressiveness
Anger
Anxiety
Burnout
Clinical outcomes
Cognitive-behavioral factors
Commuting
Emergency departments
Emergency services
Emotional abuse
Geriatric wards
Health behavior
Health status
Healthcare professionals
Hospitalization
Job insecurity
Literary criticism
Medical personnel
Mental disorders
Mental health care
Mental health services
Meta-analysis
Older people
Patients
Professionals
Psychological distress
Risk behavior
Sex crimes
Sexual abuse
Systematic review
Verbal abuse
Verbal aggression
Violence
Waiting rooms
Well being
Workers
Workplace violence
Workplaces
Workplace violence
Emergency departments
Healthcare professionals
ISSN:1359-1789, 1873-6335
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Summary:Workplace violence is defined as an aggression when staff members are abused, intimidated or attacked in circumstances related to their work, including commuting to and from work, involving an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, well-being or health. Violence against healthcare professionals is frequent, and constitutes a source of concern in the health system. Scientific literature highlights negative behavioral, emotional, cognitive and physical outcomes. The aim of this review is to examine the impact that exposure to workplace violence against healthcare professionals can produce, to improve healthcare professionals' knowledge about the consequences of workplace violence, and to guide future research in identifying strategies that could effectively reduce the incidence of workplace violence. We have conducted, in accordance with PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, a systematic search for the literature on PubMed. Search terms related to WPV were (“Workplace violence”, “Aggression”, “Aggression department emergency”), and search terms related to WPV consequences were (“Mental health”, OR “Health care workers”, OR “Burnout”). Initial search identified 1.434 articles. One-hundred publications have been selected and the relevant publications, appropriate to the topic review, was reduced to twenty-seven. According to examined literature, workplace violence mostly occurs in psychiatric departments, emergency services, polyclinics/waiting rooms, and geriatric units. Negative factors such as lack of information, insufficient personnel and equipment, and communication breakdowns increase the risk of violent behavior in healthcare services. Most violence in health institutions is perpetrated by patients and their relatives in the forms of verbal abuse, psychological violence, physical assault, and sexual abuse. Workplace violence might lead to various negative impacts on health workers' psychological and physical health, such as increase in stress and anxiety levels; feelings of anger, guilty, insecurity, burnout. •Violence against healthcare professionals is frequent, and constitutes a source of concern in the health system.•Scientific literature highlights negative behavioral, emotional, cognitive and physical outcomes against healthcare professionals•The aim of this review is to examine the impact that exposure to workplace violence against healthcare professionals can produce, to improve healthcare professionals’ knowledge about the consequences•The results guide future research in identifying strategies that could effectively reduce the incidence of workplace violence.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ObjectType-Evidence Based Healthcare-1
ISSN:1359-1789
1873-6335
DOI:10.1016/j.avb.2020.101381