Publication:

Illness profile of the patients and risk factors for violence against health care workers working in emergency department

Background Emergency services are the back bone of the every hospital, providing 24×7 health care services. Health care workers (HCWs) working in emergency department are always at a greater risk of violence. Factors leading to violence against HCWs need to be addressed to curb these incidents. Aim and objective: To study illness profile of admitted patients through emergency, find out factors leading to violence against health care workers (HCWs) working in emergency, and to recommend development of optimum skills and measures for minimizing violence.

Methods It was a cross-sectional retrospective record and focus group discussion based study. Study included patient of all age group admitted through emergency department in a tertiary care hospital in Uttar Pradesh between 01 August 2019 to 31October 2019. Data was taken from the hospital record and focal group discussion held with casualty medical officers, consultants, senior residents, junior residents, PG students, intern nursing staff and quality department. The information collected was analysed using SPSS version 20.0.

Results Out of 7094 participants, 50.4% were female. Majority of the participants (33%) were 17-32 years of the age group. Most common factor responsible for the violence was poor communication skills followed by harsh voice, poor behavior and death of the patient.

Conclusions Large number of the HCWs working in the emergency department are victims of violence by patients and their relatives. Most of the cases are underreported. There is a need to train doctors in soft skills and handling sensitive situations through appropriate measures for the safety of staff.