A Pilot Survey of Patient-Initiated Assaults on Medical Students During Clinical Clerkship

Abstract

Clinical clerks are at risk of PIA during their training. Students experiencing PIA feel that current levels of pre-clerkship training do not adequately inform them of the resources available after such an incident. These findings underline the need for PIA programs in the undergraduate curriculum including preclerkship training and clear, institution-wide reporting guidelines.

Nursing students' experiences of violence: A Questionnaire Survey

“…[18] Many studies report that healthcare staff, including students, is exposed to more violent behaviours from patients and relatives in psychiatric clinics. [14,41,[44][45][46] The current results confirm these findings, as student nurses' ranked psychiatric clinics as the least safe place for clinical practice. However, in a study investigating horizontal violence in the first professional year, McKenna et al [41] found lower rates of horizontal violence in psychiatric clinics compared to other clinics.…”

Characteristics of Staff Victims of Psychiatric Patient Assaults: 20-Year Analysis of the Assaulted Staff Action Program

“…These findings from the present study are consistent with previously published findings [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] and document the presence of patient assault on staff as an ongoing occupational hazard in health care work settings. First, the present findings are consistent with previously published research [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] in establishing the characteristics of staff most at risk: mental health workers in inpatient settings, residential house counselors, and trainees, especially those in all three groupings who are younger and have less experience and less training.…”

“…First, the present findings are consistent with previously published research [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] in establishing the characteristics of staff most at risk: mental health workers in inpatient settings, residential house counselors, and trainees, especially those in all three groupings who are younger and have less experience and less training. As in previous studies [3,15], experienced nurses who were assaulted in restraint procedures were a fourth high risk group.…”

“…Since untreated trauma may manifest itself in the victim's becoming violent [21] at a later point in time, it would appear to suggest the need for staff victim counseling. Yet, as noted earlier, most of the studies of staff victims to date [1,2,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] make no mention of such services being offered. Since patient assaults may and do occur in all inpatient and community settings, it is problematic to learn of the absence of such programs.…”

“…Since 2005, there have been eight empirical papers that have examined the impact of patient assaults on staff [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Populations sampled have varied from general hospital staff to various types of students in training.…”