On the occasion of the European Day Against Assaults on Healthcare Professionals, the Alicante College of Nursing expresses its strong condemnation of the attacks that continue to affect nurses in the Valencian Community and across the nation, joining the protests of other professional associations. This kind of violence has grown to be a serious issue that calls for effective preventative measures.
According to the most recent data from the General Nursing Council’s (CGE) Aggression Observatory, nurses are the healthcare workers that experience the most assaults. In 2023, 2,840 assaults were reported in Spain, a 10% rise from 2022. There were 15 assaults on nurses in the Valencian Community in 2023, 2 assaults in the province of Alicante in 2024, and 3 and 9 assaults in Castellón and Valencia, respectively, for a total of 14.
The Alicante institution encourages reporting to the authorities because, regrettably, the great majority of these instances go undetected. This is caused by a number of things, including the acceptance of violence in the medical field, experts’ helplessness, and fear of retaliation. Many of these attacks go unpunished in part because of the absence of excellent sanctions and the belief that the reporting process is cumbersome.
Regions where the incidence is higher
These attacks are particularly common in emergency departments, where patients and their families become extremely frustrated with service delays. Stress and tension conditions are more common in Primary Care and Mental Health, two more impacted areas. Twenty-three percent of all attacks experienced by nurses are physical, endangering not only the professionals’ integrity but also their mental health.
“The most frequent causes correspond to those related to the care perceived by the user, followed by those related to the user’s demands, and, in third and fourth place, those unrelated to the organisation or the care provided or those related to the health or administrative act performed itself,” according to the Ministry of Health’s 2024 Report on Assaults on Professionals of the National Health System. keeping the distribution consistent with prior years.
The Alicante College of Nursing once more calls on the appropriate authorities to make sure that complaints are handled promptly and efficiently and to strictly enforce the laws against assaults on healthcare workers. Additionally, it urges more public understanding of the significance of treating healthcare personnel with respect and demands for tighter security measures in all healthcare settings.
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