An average of about 1600 attacks and threats a year. The most affected are women. Over a third of the violence involved nurses and professional educators
Attacks against healthcare personnel, on the agenda as evidenced by the most recent news reports, are above all a cultural problem. «Violence does not cure» reads the slogan of the awareness campaign launched by Ministry of Health for the second national day of education and prevention against violence against health and social health workers which is celebrated on 12 March. “Aggressing them verbally and physically is a crime and an act of incivility that goes against your own interest and that of the community” is the message on the campaign posters. “Those who attack health professionals and volunteers attack the right to health – underlines Rosario Valastro, president of the Italian Red Cross -. It is not only the rescuers who pay the price but also the sick who have not been able to take care of them due to the psychological and physical violence they suffered. If the operators who have to take care of our health are insulted and beaten, we will all be more exposed to the lack of assistance ». Since 2018, the Italian Red Cross has been carrying out the “I am not a target” initiative with the setting up of tents in squares throughout Italy where citizens immerse themselves in simulated scenarios of attacks and destruction of the institution’s field hospitals.
Women are more affected
Inail has calculated nin the three-year period 2019-2021 4821 cases of assaults and threats towards healthcare personnel. A average of about 1600 a year. The most affected are women (71% of cases) and the highest concentration of episodes occurred in the 35-49 age group (39%). Beyond a third of the violence involved nurses and professional educators. In particular those engaged in educational and rehabilitation services for minors, drug addicts, alcoholics, prisoners, the disabled, psychiatric patients and the elderly. In 3% of accident cases ascertained by the Institute, the victims are doctors. «Anger, distrust, stress at work and abandonment of the profession are the consequences – reports Barbara Mangiacavalli, president of the National Federation of Orders of Nursing Professions (Fnopi) -. According to the Cease-it study carried out by eight Italian universities in 2022, among the over 5,000 nurses interviewed, 32.3% report having suffered violence in the previous week or in the previous 12 months. Among the latter, approximately 25% reported physical or psychological damage caused by the event itself, which in 41% of cases led to reduced morale, burnout in 33% and absence from work in 15%. To prevent attacks – exhorts Mangiacavalli – it is necessary to intervene upstream, promoting information on the correct use of health services, without fueling unrealistic expectations, in particular with regard to the emergency room, which is dedicated only to the management of emergencies and therefore all non-serious patients should not go to this facility, avoiding long waits that are a source of nervousness and agitation”.
The Observatory
In 2022, the Ministry of Health established the National Observatory on the safety of health and social care professions, which last year recorded 85 acts of violence against doctors and health workers, up compared to 60 in 2021. These are data sentinel collected by the Regions (through Simes, i.e. the information system for monitoring errors in healthcare), however still provisional and incomplete. Even the Red Cross has an observatory on attacks on its workers, set up as part of the “I’m not a target” campaign. Since 2018, it has collected 245 reports, of which 74 registered in the last year, 2022, with an increase of 60.8% compared to 2021. «This increase is partly due to the greater awareness of our volunteers regarding the importance of reporting and in part to an objective increase in attacks after Covid – comments Valastro -. The pandemic has brought with it a social malaise and a state of economic and work uncertainty which translates into a loss of solidarity and respect also for public health”.
Physical assaults
In 44% of the cases it was a question of physical attacks, which involved damage to both people (70%) and emergency vehicles (14%). «The data relating to the type of attacker are particularly worrying – notes the Red Cross in the report on 2022 -. In 20.48% of the cases the attack took place by a group and, in almost half of the cases (44.18%), the attacker was a user». A guideline is available on the institution’s website for healthcare professionals to protect themselves against the risk of attacks. “I take care of you. Cure me too» is, finally, the motto of the awareness campaign of Anaao, the union of managing doctors. “To stem the acts of violence against doctors and nurses, it is not enough to increase the penalties for the aggressors. The profound discomfort of which violence is the effect and not the cause must be resolved”: Pierino di Silverio, national secretary of Anaao, refers to the “problem of boarding”, i.e. the long waits of patients in the Emergency Department, often on a stretcher , for a bed in the ward, which leads to overcrowding and slowdowns in the rescue activity, and to the “lack of welcoming figures, such as psychologists and social workers, in the waiting room of the emergency room to reassure users and relatives”.
March 12, 2023 (change March 12, 2023 | 11:19 am)
© Time.News