Survey respondents indicate organizational gaps in safety prevention, response
MONDAY, Sept. 28, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Workplace violence is highly prevalent across emergency care systems worldwide, according to a study published online Sept. 24 in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the annual European Emergency Medicine Congress, held from Sept. 23 to 27 in Paris.
Roberta Petrino, M.D., from the Regional Hospital of Lugano in Switzerland, and colleagues characterized workplace violence among emergency department and emergency medical services professionals globally, as well as organizational preparedness, using survey data from 1,306 participants (81 countries).
The researchers found that the mean overall safety estimation score (measured on a Likert scale [0 = very safe; 6 = very unsafe]) was 3.26, indicating moderate concern regarding workplace safety. Three-quarters of respondents witnessed workplace violence in the previous year, more than two-thirds (68.8 percent) experienced psychological harm, and 40.3 percent experienced physical harm. The most common form of violence was verbal aggression (87.8 percent), followed by physical assault (42.3 percent), property damage (26.4 percent), sexual harassment (14.6 percent), race-related violence (14.5 percent), armed conflict (4.5 percent), and weapon-related incidents (4.1 percent). Patients were the primary perpetrators (67.6 percent), followed by relatives or friends (44.1 percent). Leading contributors included alcohol/drug intoxication and emergency department crowding. Only half of respondents (51.1 percent) had received formal violence-prevention training, and just over half (57.3 percent) had access to psychosocial support following violent incidents.
“Workplace violence not only jeopardizes the physical and mental health of health care professionals but also negatively impacts the quality of care they provide,” coauthor Luis Garcia Castrillo, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Cantabria in Santander, Spain, said in a statement. “The survey reveals that 45.8 percent of respondents thought that the quality of care was diminished as a result of the violence they encountered.”
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