Attacks on healthcare workers, Opi Pesaro Urbino requires urgent safety measures

2′ reading
04/23/2024 – All members of the Opi Pesaro Urbino strongly condemn these violent acts and express maximum solidarity with all those who have suffered. President Serafini Marco reminds us that healthcare personnel carry out very delicate daily work, in contact with patients, to ensure they receive maximum assistance and the necessary care, often with extended hours, exhausting shifts and reduced human resources.

This episode of aggression raises serious concerns about the safety of healthcare personnel on duty, who daily risk being victims of violence by patients. It is vital that we take urgent measures to ensure a safe working environment and protect those who dedicate their energies to caring for others. We ask institutions and company managements for a direct, urgent and concrete commitment. Unfortunately – I would like to underline – that the numbers of attacks appear higher than the cases reported. In fact, nurses often do not report or highlight cases of verbal violence.

As stated by Barbara Mangiacavalli, president of FNOPI “The experience of a nurse, of a professional who is attacked in some way is an experience that is difficult to process. There are international studies that tell us about episodes of burnout, stress, disaffection, so much so that in recent years there have been many cases of abandonment of care and assistance professions for this reason”.

Serafini continues by explaining that “the attacks are the effect of a series of important causes that have their roots in different contexts, including organizational models and some lack of responses that citizens suffer. The needs of the latter are often not channeled to the most appropriate places. For example, many visits to the emergency room are not linked to vital critical situations. Instead, listening needs emerge, the need to take charge of complex situations, which touch on the social welfare sphere. They therefore expect a response from a service, from a structure, which is often not the correct one. It is therefore necessary to invest so that there are increasingly widespread and well-known territorial services. It is urgently necessary to reorganize health services mainly in the local area and on this we count that the introduction of the figure of the family and community nurse can encourage citizens to use local health services so as to provide support to the emergency room which continues to confirm itself as the main location in which episodes of violence occur”.