Creating a Sustainable Healthcare Workplace : Management Challenges Related to Aggressive Patient Behaviour

This essential resource is written for health and safety professionals, healthcare administrators, hospital managers, medical staff supervisors, human resource professionals, and policymakers responsible for healthcare worker safety.

Healthcare workers face increasingly dangerous work environments, with patient aggression emerging as a critical threat particularly in emergency departments. This title reveals the alarming frequency of verbal, physical, and mental aggression toward medical staff, often surrounded by a conspiracy of silence despite its significant impact on healthcare delivery. Through research including surveys of 246 medical professionals, 39 interviews, and 13 case studies, the authors expose the prevalence of this phenomenon and its devastating consequences for workers, organizations, and ultimately patient care. Creating a Sustainable Healthcare Workplace: Management Challenges Related to Aggressive Patient Behaviour identifies, classifies, and addresses workplace threats affecting medical staff safety, with special emphasis on psychosocial hazards related to aggressive patient behaviour. The book presents a three-tiered intervention framework operating at systemic, organizational, and individual levels and offers practical recommendations to prevent incidents, support employees during aggressive encounters, and mitigate aftermath effects. This approach will allow the reader to understand and create a sustainable workplace where healthcare professionals can perform their duties without fear, ultimately improving care quality for all patients. This essential resource is written for health and safety professionals, healthcare administrators, hospital managers, medical staff supervisors, human resource professionals, and policymakers responsible for healthcare worker safety. Medical professionals working in high-risk environments, particularly emergency departments, will find valuable insights and practical strategies to address patient aggression.