Maintaining staff and patient safety in‘ED’

Emergency Department (ED) patient volumes are increasing, and pressures mounting on EDs across the UK, Canada, and the US. In the UK, NHS statistics have revealed that the number of patients attending accident and emergency departments has hit an all-time high, driven by a big rise in the number of older people needing care.¹ A report from Australia showed that emergency departments in many developed countries are experiencing increasing pressure due to rising numbers of patients presenting to the ED. Reported increases range up to 7% annually.² 

With the growing pressures, comes an increase in patient and family anxieties, leading to an increasing tendency toward aggressive behaviour or violent episodes against ED clinical care-givers. A 2012 NHS report revealed that there were more than 150 reported physical assaults on healthcare staff per day (in ED and throughout the hospital). Royal College of Nursing research revealed further troubling statistics, with almost 11% of those surveyed having been assaulted at work in the previous two years, and more than 60% of all respondents having suffered verbal abuse at work.³ 

Violence against ‘ED’ workers