A violência no setor da saúde num Agrupamento de Centros de Saúde no norte de Portugal

Abstract

Background: The phenomenon of violence at work has intensified during the most recent years, being interpreted nowadays as a priority issue worldwide. There is evidence of a high potential for the occurrence of violent practices against the professionals in the health sector and the data released enforces the need to address this issue. Objective: To evaluate the violence perceived by professionals from a Group of Health Centers in the north of Portugal. Methodology: Diagnosis of Health Situation, whose population consisted of 394 professionals working in the Group of Health Centers under study. Results: From the group of employees surveyed, 42% were victims of some episode of violence while carrying out their work activities, with a predominance of verbal violence and with the patient as the main aggressor. Such acts mostly caused emotional disturbances and decreased interest in the profession, being mainly carried out in the work office or through communication channels. Furthermore, the lack of reporting of these situations was identified as well as the erroneous idea of considering violent acts as “part of the job”.