Violence and aggression towards professional carers in short-term inpatient care (hospital)
Project management: Prof. Dr. Beate Blättner
Collaborator: Stefanie Freytag, M.Sc.
Cooperation partners: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Health and Nursing Science; University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Nursing Science
Duration: October 2020 - February 2021
Client: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
In view of the demographic developments in Germany and the changes in the structure of care provision, the number of care workers is decreasing as the need for care increases. Many care workers turn their backs on their profession after only a few years, which exacerbates the bottlenecks. In addition, the profession has been dealing with recruitment problems for years. This is often due to unfavourable working conditions, such as shift work, overtime, lack of work-life balance and high physical and mental stress at the workplace. Preventive and health-promoting measures are therefore needed above all to reduce the workloads of carers. In this way, the health of employees can be protected and the professional image of care can be improved.
In this responsibility, the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) is dedicating itself to this topic and is launching the guideline: "Good ward organisation - A guide for care facilities". It is aimed specifically at nursing and nursing area management and shows how work organisation can be improved in various fields of action in nursing. The guide has not yet taken into account operational measures for dealing with challenging behaviour, violence and aggression towards professional carers in inpatient short-term care (hospital).
The aim of the project is to reflect and bring together the current state of knowledge on operational measures for dealing with challenging behaviour, violence and aggression towards professional nurses in the hospital setting. The findings are used by the BAuA to derive suitable recommendations for action for nursing practice.
The following work packages were developed in the consortium to deal with the topic:
Work package B.2: Compilation and brief description of operational measures for dealing with challenging behaviour, violence and aggression towards professional carers in inpatient short-term care on the basis of a search in the scientific literature, in the form of an overview paper.
Work package B.3: Compilation and brief description of operational measures for dealing with challenging behaviour, violence and aggression towards occupational carers in inpatient short-term care on the basis of a search of action aids, in the form of a review paper
Work package B.5: Conducting interviews with company and inter-company actors on the topic of company measures for dealing with challenging behaviour, violence and aggression towards occupational caregivers in inpatient short-term care
The Fulda Study Centre is responsible for work package B.5 in the consortium.
In order to obtain a company and inter-company perspective on the subject of the study, interviews will be conducted in work package B.5 with nursing stakeholders, e.g. the DBFK and the nursing chamber, as well as professional nurses from maximum, basic and standard care hospitals. Rehab clinics, psychiatric facilities, intensive care units and emergency departments are excluded. A total of 10 guided telephone interviews are planned. The digitally recorded interviews will be transcribed according to a simple rule system and evaluated using the evaluation method of Thematic Framework Analysis according to Richie and Spencer.