[Aggressions towards nurses in emergency departments: an international literature review].

Workplace violence is a widespread phenomenon in every kind of settings. Among these ones there are emergency departments (ED), that have distinctive features as like the large daily number of patients' presentations, and high emotional content or stressing situations related to the management of diagnostic-therapeutic priorities. We reviewed the medical and nursing literature to quantify the international widespread of aggressions towards nurses working in EDs, distinguish the typologies and the perpetrators, and identify the consequences on victims and healthcare organizations. Original papers were searched using Medline, CINHAL, and Medscape databases.  35 research articles met the inclusion criteria, but 6 were not retrieved. The rate of verbal abuses reported by ED nurses varies from 50% to 100% of those who were surveyed, while physical violence ranges between 16.7% and 72%. Patients and relatives are the main perpetrators, followed by doctors, and, only in lower percentages, by nurses colleagues. Alcohol, drugs abuse, and overcrowding in EDs are acknowledged as motivating factors for violent events. Under-reporting of aggressions is frequent up to the 80% of victims, and some papers report that nurses consider assaults as a normal part of their work. There is a direct relation between aggressions and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disturb syndrome. Moreover there is a sense of continuous fear in nurses, causing the likelihood of workplace leaving. Special educational courses seem to be effective in diminishing the number of aggressions and to adopt adequate adaptive behaviors.