Education and training for preventing and minimizing workplace aggression directed toward healthcare workers

In this Cochrane systematic review, researchers assessed the effectiveness of education and training interventions to prevent and minimize workplace aggression directed toward health care workers by patients and patient advocates.

Researchers found that education combined with training may not have an effect on workplace aggression directed toward health care workers, even though education and training may increase personal knowledge and positive attitudes. 

Researchers pointed out the need for more and higher quality studies that:

• Focus on specific settings of health care work where exposure to patient aggression is high
• Include other types of health care workers who are also victims of aggression, such as orderlies (health care assistants) 
• Use reports of aggression at an institutional level and rely on multi‐source data while using validated measures 
• Include days lost to sick leave and employee turnover and measure outcomes at one‐year follow‐up 
• Specify the duration and type of delivery of education and use an active comparison to prevent raising awareness and reporting in the intervention group only