Introduction. Physicians are frequently victims of both physical and verbal violence. Specific training is required for staff so that they are able to deal with these situations. Objective. To assess the clinical management and behavior of pediatric medical residents towards a violent mother during a pediatric emergency simulation. Materials and methods. Observational, retrospective and descriptive study. Video recordings of a pediatric emergency simulation with the participation of medical residents working at a public children's hospital between March and July 2014 were reviewed. The case mother was verbally violent and interfered with participants, both physically and orally. During debriefing, discussions were recorded. Results. Sixty-eight pediatric medical residents divided into 15 groups were observed. Twelve handled the episode appropriately; only two groups asked the security staff to remove the mother from the scene (recommended behavior). Other two groups managed to remove the mother from the clinical scenario but in the midst of struggles. Out of all physicians, 54.4% (n = 37) came into physical contact with the mother, and 95.6% had not previously received guidelines on how to manage violent situations. Conclusions. Only a few groups managed to remove the violent mother from the scene. Unconsented physical contact with the mother was one of the most commonly observed behaviors. A lack of institutional guidelines on how to handle violent situations was detected.
Conditions requiring emergency surgery and trauma care are still common in emergency systems and require immediate evaluation and timely resolution even during a pandemic as is currently happening with COVID-19, a scenario that threatens to affect their capacity to provide care5,8. In these cases, certain measures must be taken for the special care of health care workers and their patients, who are often admitted in critical condition and require an immediate surgical intervention that does not allow for any delay. For this purpose, an algorithm should be developed with recommendations which include a checklist to guide surgeons working in emergency and trauma systems about the issues to consider for the appropriate management and treatment of these conditions and for preparation of perioperative environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ultimate goal is to maintain adequate care with the necessary and required protection in each case5,8,11, raising awareness of the importance of preserving capacity to respond to these conditions that routinely occur in our community.
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