Dealing with violence in the emergency department

The emergency room can be a chaotic and unpredictable environment, and on some occasions a violent one.

Triage nurses, the nurses who make the first assessment when a patient comes into emergency, are the most common targets – however ongoing support for nurses who are confronted with a violent episode at work, often lags behind.

Jacqueline Pich from the Faculty of Health at the University of Technology Sydney has undertaken research looking at violence in the ER and the effect it can have on hospital staff, and she says violence isn’t limited to physical attacks.