SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE/MADRID, May 4. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Eight out of every ten nurses in Spain have been assaulted while carrying out their assistance and care work in a health or socio-health center, of which about half have been assaulted on up to five occasions and about 15 percent on more than 10 occasions. occasions. Of the professionals surveyed in the Canary Islands, 53.29 percent have been on up to five occasions and 16.77 percent on more than ten occasions.
This follows from the macro survey carried out by the Nursing Union (SATSE) to a total of 7,359 nurses from all the autonomous communities, in addition to Ceuta and Melilla, to make an updated “x-ray” of the problem of violence in the health field that is suffered in the State as a whole.
Specifically, 80.3 percent of the nurses consulted by SATSE have suffered some form of aggression, either physical (shoves, involuntary restraints, punches…) or verbal (threats, humiliations, insults…) throughout their life. their working life by patients and/or relatives.
The highest percentage of attacked nurses has been registered in the Urgencies and Emergency services, since up to 88.08 percent of the professionals who work in this area of care claim to have been victims of one or more situations of violence towards His person.
Of the percentage of nurses attacked, 48.44 percent have been attacked up to 5 times; 25.21 percent, on a single occasion; 12.06 percent, between 6 and 10 occasions; and 14.29 percent on more than 10 occasions.
In the case of professionals who are now unemployed, but who have worked months ago coinciding with the COVID-19 health crisis, and who are usually the youngest, the percentage increases to 63.16 percent in the case of those who have been victims of violence up to five times.
Specifically, in the last two years, marked healthily by the pandemic, 67.30 percent of nurses in our country have suffered some type of aggression. A percentage that also increases to 89.47 percent in the case of now unemployed professionals who were hired temporarily to deal with the serious health crisis.
Likewise, Nursing professionals think that the work environment in health and social health centers, as well as the relationship with patients, has worsened in the last two years, and this is stated by 76 percent of the nurses consulted.
When asking about the type of aggression suffered, and bearing in mind that one type of aggression does not exclude another, and that the same person can suffer different types of aggression, even within the same act of violence, it is found that, for the most part, Insults (78.67 percent) and threats (72.79 percent) are the most frequent forms of aggression, followed by harassment (28.80 percent). With regard to physical aggression, these have been suffered by 17.05 percent of those surveyed.
“All very serious and alarming data, which should make all public administrations and private health companies act in a joint, coordinated and effective manner, having as a reference a State Law that fights against this serious scourge that especially affects the group of nurses by its closest and closest relationship with the patient and their relatives”, concludes SATSE.