A Pilot Study of Violence on Emergency Department Nurses in Taipei

大台北地區急診護理人員受暴之先驅研究

蔡卓城(Cheuk-Sing Choy) ； 邱弘毅(Hung-Yi Chiou) ； 邱文達(Wen-Ta Chiu) ； 黃郁雯(Yu-Wen Huang) ； 謝屈平(Khoot-Peng Cheah) ； 陳曜卿(Yaw-Ching Chen) ； 周宏聰(Hung-Tsung Chou)

《Journal of Emergency Medicine, Taiwan》 8卷4期 (2006/12) Pp. 126-133

摘要

Background and Objectives: Violent events in the emergency department (ED) on the nursing staff have become a major issue for the improvement of health care safety in the work place. We investigated the percentage of nursing staff critically assaulted in the Taipei, Taiwan area during a 1-year period, and discussed the reasons for the violence on the ED nursing staff.
Methods: Subjects in this study were chosen randomly from various levels of the ED according to the department of health of the Taipei city government and the public health bureau of the Taipei county government. The chosen samples were stratified sampling. The nursing staff from the ED and intensive care unit (ICU) were in the study from February 2006 through May 2006.
Results: The findings of the violence experienced by the ED nursing staff were more serious than expected. The prevalence of the violent attacks suffered by the ED and ICU nursing staff within the year were 65.1% and 33.6%, respectively. Moreover, the violence mostly came from the patient himself/herself or from the family members of the patients. The nursing staff were attacked using objects such as the patients' medical history reports. In addition, alcohol and drug abuse were potential risk factors in the patients (P＜0.05). The main areas of the violent attacks were the triage area (66.4%) and the observation area (44.3%). The reasons for the violence included drunken patients, long wait times, and inappropriate communication and treatment between the patient and doctor.
Conclusion: Violence in the work place is very serious for the ED nursing staff. The results of this study are crucial and provide evidence of violence to authorities and interested groups who need to know that safety in the work place is a serious concern. Meanwhile the main motivation for doing this study was to keep the ED nursing staff safe and away from the violence.

關鍵字

急診護理人員 ； 暴力事件 ； 盛行率

並列摘要

Background and Objectives: Violent events in the emergency department (ED) on the nursing staff have become a major issue for the improvement of health care safety in the work place. We investigated the percentage of nursing staff critically assaulted in the Taipei, Taiwan area during a 1-year period, and discussed the reasons for the violence on the ED nursing staff.
Methods: Subjects in this study were chosen randomly from various levels of the ED according to the department of health of the Taipei city government and the public health bureau of the Taipei county government. The chosen samples were stratified sampling. The nursing staff from the ED and intensive care unit (ICU) were in the study from February 2006 through May 2006.
Results: The findings of the violence experienced by the ED nursing staff were more serious than expected. The prevalence of the violent attacks suffered by the ED and ICU nursing staff within the year were 65.1% and 33.6%, respectively. Moreover, the violence mostly came from the patient himself/herself or from the family members of the patients. The nursing staff were attacked using objects such as the patients' medical history reports. In addition, alcohol and drug abuse were potential risk factors in the patients (P＜0.05). The main areas of the violent attacks were the triage area (66.4%) and the observation area (44.3%). The reasons for the violence included drunken patients, long wait times, and inappropriate communication and treatment between the patient and doctor.
Conclusion: Violence in the work place is very serious for the ED nursing staff. The results of this study are crucial and provide evidence of violence to authorities and interested groups who need to know that safety in the work place is a serious concern. Meanwhile the main motivation for doing this study was to keep the ED nursing staff safe and away from the violence.

並列關鍵字

emergency department nursing staff ； violence ； prevalence