Verbal abuse and mobbing in pre-hospital care services in Chile

Abstract

Objective:to determine the perception of verbal abuse and mobbing and the associated factors of paramedic technicians (nursing assistants) and professionals (nurses, midwives, kinesiologists) in the pre-hospital care areas of three regions in the south of Chile. Methods:descriptive and correlational study was performed within the professional community and a two-stage sample of the paramedic technician population in three regions. The questionnaire “workplace violence in the health sector” (spanish version) was applied after signing the informed consent. Results:51.4% of professionals and 46.6% of paramedic technicians consider they have been verbally abused during last year. 17.6% of paramedic technicians and 13.5% of professionals perceived mobbing. A low percentage of these events are reported. In only one case of mobbing, the aggressor was legally penalized. No significant differences were found between the job categories and the studied regions. Conclusions:A high percentage of participants in each group perceived verbal abuse and non-minor percentage perceived mobbing, but most of these events are not reported.

Violência ocupacional na equipe de enfermagem: prevalência e fatores associados

“…Studies conducted in Chile showed the same findings, and attributed the high occurrence of verbal abuse to the abuser's mild or absent punishment. (28) Verbal abuse among colleagues may result from an employee's attempt to protect himself from uncivil relationships, responding (un)consciously to peers with hostility. Horizontal violence can still occur due to the employees' need to escape from the frustrations caused by some type of violence experienced by them.…”

Workplace violence among prehospital care providers in India: a cross-sectional study

“…Specifically, Indian EMTs were more likely to experience physical assault than emergency department workers in Karachi, Pakistan (16.5%) and Johannesburg, South Africa (17%) 1 13 27. While a recent multicenter study of EMTs in Iran revealed rates of physical assault (60.3%) comparable to our Indian study population (58%),14 physical violence among EMTs was less frequent in Saudi Arabia (8.3%), Chile (13.5%) and a prior study from Iran (38%) 14 15 27 28. More than half of our participants also experienced verbal assault (59.8%; 95% CI 54.5% to 65%).…”

“…The WHO identified global healthcare providers as particularly vulnerable to WPV, which can substantially affect the welfare and retention of this vital workforce 12. Prior investigations have examined WPV among emergency department and hospital workers in LMICs, but few studies have been conducted on prehospital care providers such as emergency medical technicians (EMTs) 4 13–15. Importantly, violence at the workplace can lead to injuries requiring medical attention and/or leave from work with one study suggesting that 25% of WPV cases lead to injury and 37% require medical care 4 16 17.…”

Psychosocial risks of relief professionals: violence in pre-hospital settings

“…The chief officers consider that violence occurs in this activity more often than in pre-hospital settings, and aggravates because it is usually accompanied by the person affected by the fire or by a group of people who joins at the moment. Comparing with pre-hospital care, we note that the main aggressor is mostly the victim, that is, the interested party in the situation, followed by the present family (Al-Turki et al, 2016;Bernaldo-De-Quirós et al, 2015;Campo & Klijn, 2017; DGS, Departamento da Qualidade na Saúde, 2015) and, sometimes, others who may be simply spectators or professionals who were on site (Campo & Klijn, 2017; DGS, Departamento da Qualidade na Saúde, 2015). The chief officers stated that violence causes harmful medium-and long-term effects to firefighters, such as emotional drainage, psychological trauma, outrage, mistrust, discouragement, workplace absence or withdrawal, fear of dispatching and refusal to dispatching for similar occurrences, or loss of profitability, ultimately impacting the institution.…”

“…The underreporting and the withdrawal of complaints to the authorities or the legal proceedings already underway in court exemplify the lack of relevance given to the phenomenon. There are several reasons, the main one being that professionals regard it as useless or that the experienced event was not significant (Al-Turki et al, 2016;Bernaldo-De-Quirós et al, 2015;Campo & Klijn, 2017;Lima & Sousa, 2015), or that it is interpreted as something inevitable and accepted with passivity. Violence is a contemporary and little publicized social phenomenon, but it affects the professionals directly or indirectly in any moment of their careers (Al-Turki et al, 2016;Petzäll et al, 2011).…”