[Violence and aggression in care-related jobs--a literature overview]

Abstract

For many people working in the care sector, aggression and violence are part of their everyday working life. In order to obtain an overview of the occurrence of violence and aggression in care-related jobs, the current literature on this topic has been analysed. Most published studies are in English and refer to psychiatric facilities. There are fewer analyses of facilities that provide care for the elderly, and facilities that look after people with disabilities have been analysed even less frequently. The German as well as the English literature provides no clues as to the valid prevalence rates in the various fields of the health sector. It is particularly difficult to comment on the prevalence rates because different tools have been used to collect the information. In addition, the definitions of violence and aggression used differ from study to study. In the present article, we introduce fourteen tools that have been developed to record aggressive behaviour towards others. The choice of the tools should be based on the choice of the target group. There are hints indicating that the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised (SOAS-R) is the most suitable tool to record aggressive behaviour prospectively across all fields in the health care sector.