Patient violence toward a nurse: predictable and preventable?
1. It is estimated that half of all health care professionals will be assaulted at some point in their careers. 2. Prediction of violence depends not only on obvious factors, such as threats made by the patient, but also on more subtle violations of boundaries, such as patient contact with the clinician outside the clinical setting by telephone or in-person encounters in the clinician's home. A specific factor associated with danger seems to be the patient's perception of an unrealistic, "special" relationship with the person targeted. 3. Health care professionals should avoid creating a sense of guilt and shame in clinicians about such issues as countertransference. Staff members should be able to discuss issues without laying blame and possibly prevent dangerous situations.
Vincent
M
M
Providence VA Medical Center, Rhode Island 02906.
White
K
K
D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D014754:Violence