Violence and aggression in an emergency department – Belo Horizonte/Brazil

Introduction
Aggression and violence are common in the health care facilities in Brazil. The aims of this study were to examine perceived levels of violence in the emergency department of a general hospital, and identified violence preventive strategies adopted by healthcare workers

Methods
A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed along the years of 2009/2010. A total of 252 healthcare workers from the emergency department of a general hospital in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil) completed a questionnaire. The questionnaire focuses on gathering information on the demographic, victimization and stress evoking variables. Data were analyzed using SPSS 19.0

Results
61,2% of the respondents had between 20 and 35 years, 40,5 were married,73,4% were women, 51,7% were nurse technician, 7,6% bachelor of nursing degree, 28,0% doctors and 13,7% were others health professionals. Of the 252 respondents, 73% reported have been victim of verbal abuse by patient in the last 12 months, 62% was victim of verbal abuse by patient companion/family, 10,8% was victim of sexual harassment by patient, 36,5% was threatened by patient, and, 6,0% was physically assaulted. To prevent be victim of violence 34,1% of respondents reported have decreased contact with patients and their companion/family, 41,7% avoid expose the badge with personal identification, 17,1 avoid to be seen speaking with police officer, 35,3% prevent asking patient about the circumstances which a injury occurs and 19,5% of workers considered changing job. 19,4% of healthcare workers don’t recorded violent incidents suffered by the patients fearing the vengeance of offender.

Discussion
Violence at work is a serious problem in health care facilities in Brazil, particularly for those located in hot spot areas of crime. That causes turn-over in health care staff, lead to both short and longer term psychosocial and physical effects and impair the quality of healthcare.