A staggering 89 percent of nurses surveyed by the Croatian Nursing Council have experienced some form of verbal or physical violence in the workplace, the Council reported in a press release on Monday.

The survey, held in May 2018 on a sample of 1,705 nurses, included existing issues of violence against nurses, ranging from verbal to physical, the issue of reporting the incidents, the consequences of suffering violence, as well as different aspects of security in health institutions.

“The main reason we conducted the survey is the increasingly important problem of violence against nurses, which can escalate to the point of endangering their lives. The Nursing Council wants to show how deep this problem is and how necessary it is to systematically solve it,” said the Council chair, Slava Sepec.

Some two thirds (62 percent) of those who experienced some form of violence said that the attacks were verbal, while over a third (37 percent) said they have experienced physical violence as well. In the last five years, attacks on nurses happened in 73 percent health institutions surveyed, the Council said.

“Precisely because of frequent attacks on nurses, the Council requested the Criminal law to be amended to classify attacks on nurses and other health workers as attacks on officials,” Sepec said, and added she was pleased to hear that the government took their requests into consideration and included a provision in the new bill which treat attacks on doctors and health workers as attacks on officials.

The Justice Ministry has drafted a new bill which defines a three-year prison sentence for those who use or threaten force on a health worker at his or her work.

The Nurses Council survey showed that in 77 percent cases the patients were violent, while in 56 percent cases it was the family or those accompanying the patient who committed the attacks.

What is concerning is that the majority of nurses (63 percent) who have experienced violence have not reported it, citing fear of creating additional problems as the main reason.

Out of 37 percent those who have reported the incidents, over 90 percent reported them to their employers, while only 22 percent to the police, the union, court or the Council.

Violence, the research showed, leaves a mark on the nurses who were exposed to it. Some 66 percent nurses feel a constant or occasional fear of violence, and some 5 percent had to take sick leave as a consequence of the incidents. Some 64 percent nurses surveyed think that additional education would be beneficial in dealing with violent persons.

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