Patient-related violence against nursing staff working in emergency departments: a systematic review

The healthcare industry has been identified as one of the most violent workplace sectors, with emergency departments ranked as one of the areas with the highest risk for such violence. Patient-related aggression and violence have been identified as common behaviors in the modern emergency department. Within this context, nursing has been identified as the occupation with the most risk of patient-related violence, with 60-90% of nurses reporting exposure to verbal and physical violence. Emergency department nurses have been identified as having the most stressful workplace setting of all nurses, and are exposed to a disproportionate amount of violence. High levels of verbal abuse and threatening behavior are reported, with up to 90% of emergency department nurses having experienced violence at some point in their careers and all have reported experiencing verbal abuse