Aggression In Health Care

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Aggression is defined as a behavior in which is apparent the intention to cause painful stimuli to an individual (man or animal) or destructive intention towards objects. People aggression manifests mainly in three types: Verbal aggression, physical aggression towards others and physical aggression towards objects. Violence usually has the meaning of physical aggression towards people, thus being a subunit of aggression. [1]
A person’s (patient or visitor) aggressive behavior depends on factors from his/her background (social-economic-childhood), immediate environmental factors and possible co-existing medical conditions (organic or psychiatric) [1]
Apart from patients or visitors aggression, a situation might make the clinician aggressive …show more content…

These questionnaires are good tools to help us understand the situation in each hospital and set a plan. The existing tools in use are SOVES-G-R, POAS and POIS. SOVES-G-R is one of just a few internationally validated tools. SOVES-G-R specifically is a questionnaire regarding violent episodes collecting data for each episode (which people took part in it, under which circumstances, when, and the consequences of it) …show more content…

This team provides the best possible care for an escalating individual. “Code S” serves two necessities: feeling of the staff being overpowered in dealing with escalating individuals every day, and the traditional “show of force”. The second component is converted nowadays to “show of support”, because the clinician should be controlling the situation. It is better for the patients and the staff to know that help is standing nearby. Sometimes the security staff is preferable to stand out of the sight of some patients, so they don’t escalate further. Anyway, the desired outcome is to reduce physical and chemical restrictions.(9)
Another measure to help reduce aggression and violence in the hospitals is the “team triage”, a team which regulates the priority of patients, according to the urgency of the condition. This team can reduce waiting time in emergencies. All patients can be screened within 20 minutes, or less. An additional advantage is that by assessing the patient very fast you can send him/her for the necessary diagnostic tests while you examine the next one, thus saving time and space in the emergency department (10)