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Abstract
Violence in the workplace has serious consequences on the health and psychosocial well-being of the worker involved. The risk of suffering violence is one of the many professional risks in the health sector (for example, biological, chemical, physical, biomechanical, ergonomic and organizational). Several studies report that a high percentage of health workers will suffer workplace violence at least once during their professional career. Critical working conditions - such as excessive displacement, poor management and lack of balance between work and private life - can encourage violent and harassing behavior in the workplace. The European Community must guarantee prevention policies and implement measures to protect workers against violence. High levels of stress in the workplace can develop risky behavior; prevention programs must therefore be aimed at making the work environment more convivial. Furthermore, in case of violence, adequate assistance programs must be guaranteed to the victim to manage the consequences of the trauma. The promotion of safer conditions and the prevention of risk factors in the health sector play a key role in improving the quality of work and the health conditions of individual workers.
Keywords: workplace violence; healthcare; prevention; management; organizational psychology.
1.Introduction
Violence in the workplace has become a problem of increasing global interest. The European Community have introduced the term "work-related violence" to define the physical and/or psychological violence related to any accident in which the personnel is the victim of abuse, threats or aggression in circumstances related to their work, including the journey to and from work, implying an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, well-being and health (Wynne et al., 1997). The health system is particularly affected by the problem of workplace violence. From 2002 to 2013, the rate of serious violence incidents (those requiring days off for an injured worker to recuperate) was more than four times greater in healthcare than in private industry on average. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) provided specific guidelines for managing workplace violence in the health sector (ILO, 2002). After the WHO intervention, the other countries improved their legislation on violence.The National Institute for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA) published in 2015 the "Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers" to give workers effective tools...