User violence prevention and intervention measures to minimize and prevent aggression towards health care workers: A systematic review

Abstract

Workplace violence in the health care setting is a social problem of great interest both at the health care level and in research in recent decades. The most common type of violence is the one coming from the user towards the professional. Although the bibliography includes multiple preventive actions focused on working with professionals, there are hardly any studies that explore and collect actions aimed at the user. The aim of this study is to analyze the results of the literature to provide an overview of the current evidence. Specifically, it aims to describe the various user-directed strategies or interventions aimed at reducing workplace violence experienced by professionals within the healthcare sector. A systematic review was performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), methodology of publications published up to December 2022 in the main databases. Studies that met the previously established eligibility criteria were identified. A peer review of the risk of bias was performed and the data were extracted from a previously elaborated template. The search yielded 5231 articles of which 11 were finally included in the review. Of these, 3 had a quantitative design, 7 had a qualitative design and one had a combined design. Of these, 38 measures or actions aimed at the user were compiled, grouped into four blocks according to the attitudinal objective pursued: Improvement of communication and creation of links, involvement of the user in joint decisions with the staff, informing and training the user, and other independent proposals. This study makes it possible to explore actions aimed at users with the objective of reducing violence towards health professionals. It collects and makes available to the scientific community a set of measures aimed at making a change of attitude in the perpetrator themselves, with the involvement of the perpetrator in the health system. This set of collected measures provides researchers with a basis to be taken into account for the implementation of future prevention plans according to the new multicomponent prevention models and with the involvement of the perpetrator themselves.