Emergency Department is a place where patients come with emergency illnesses, injuries and life threatening condition. Most of the time, patient is brought in their worst condition where both patients and relatives that accompanied are in the high level of stress. Staff assigned in the Emergency Department are considered front liners who assessed patients with utmost care and compassion. But oftentimes they receive all the level of stress coming from both patients and significant others. Most of the time their safety is at risk because if the unpredictable behavior of clients and significant others inside the Emergency Room. According to Stene (2015) there is an increasing violence in the workplace in the Emergency Department and sad to say some nurses accepted it as part of their jobs and according to the report nurses did not know what acts constitute violence. Workplace violence is an act of aggression directed toward persons at work or on duty, ranging from offensive or threatening language to homicide according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) It is generally defined as any physical assault, emotional or verbal abuse, or threatening, harassing, or coercive behavior in the work letting that causes physical or emotional harm (Gacki-Smith, et al, 2009). On the other hand, violence is defined by the World Health Organization in the WRVH as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal development or deprivation” (Rutherford A., et al, 2007). In one of the study, nurses globally faces violence hazardous issues in the workplace where it is a potentially life-threatening and life-affecting nurses (Pich , J. et al, 2017). As an observation, violence in the emergency department can be in the form of assault or battery or a mere shout to the health care personnel, which resulted to degrade oneself. It is acceptable if the patients himself is demanding because he is suffering from an illness but the worst is a very demanding companion of the patient. In a survey conducted for the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), a majority of the 3,539 doctors polled said they had been the victims of workplace violence recently. About 62% of ER physicians reported being assaulted in the past year, with 24% saying they had been assaulted two to five times (Cheney, 2018).
The Emergency Room of Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital is one of the busiest department in the hospital and this is also the most chaotic area. ER staff works with professionalism but how could they maintain professionalism if violence occurred.
According to American College of Physicians (2011) it is very hard to become effective health care workers in an environment that is not safe at all. It is said, that “Optimal patient care is achieved only when patients, visitors, and health-care workers are protected against violent acts occurring within the health-care setting. A safe working environment is conducive to improved staff morale, and enhanced productivity.”
Quality care can be rendered smoothly to patients with safe environment for the staff.
It is the intent of this study is to assess the different violence exposure of the Emergency Room Staff of one of the government hospital that could enhance the safety policy for the ER staff.
Methodology
The study will utilize quantitative research method under descriptive design. This is referred to as a systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. It described the present behavior or characteristics of a particular population. In this study, variables will be ascertained to different characteristic of violence encountered in the emergency room of the respondents as an assessment. The participants are the Emergency Room staff that includes physicians, nurses, medical technologists, emergency room clerks and nursing attendants assigned in the emergency room of one of the government hospital. The researchers adopt and modified the tool from the Emergency Department Violence Surveillance Study November 2011 of Emergency Nurses Association Institute for Emergency Nursing Research. Informed consent will be obtained from the target participants. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from Medical Director and Research committee of the hospital.
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