The National Observatory of Aggressions against Nurses has recorded 3,285 attacks on these professionals during 2025, more than double the number recorded eight years ago, in 2017, the year this organization began to operate and 1,593 incidents were reported.
This data has been made known at the table "Caring for those who care: strategies against violence in the healthcare field," organized within the framework of the XLII Congress of the Spanish Society of Healthcare Quality (SECA), which takes place in Gijón (Asturias) until this Friday.
Participating in the session were the head of the Occupational Risk Prevention Service of the Consorci Sanitari Alt Penedès i Garraf, Genís Cervantes Ortega; the Secretary General of the General Council of Nursing, Diego Ayuso Murillo; and Inspector Miguel Ángel Gil Ruiz, head of the Territorial Unit of Private Security of the Local Police Station of Gijón, attached to the Citizen Security Brigade.
The speakers warned that the official figures of aggressions against nursing fall short of reality, as many professionals do not report the incidents due to fear, anxiety, or the tendency to accept certain behaviors as something normal.
The presented data indicates that 77 percent of the attacks suffered by nursing staff are verbal in nature and 23 percent are physical. A very significant part of the episodes is concentrated in hospital emergency services, although they are also recorded in Primary Care (AP) and in home care.
Among the causes that are usually behind these situations, dissatisfaction with the assistance received, waiting times, delays in care, and the mismatch between the expectations of patients and families and the actual services that the healthcare system can offer have been cited.
During the discussion, the convenience of unifying notification systems and sharing data between administrations and healthcare entities has been emphasized, in order to have solid information that allows locating the environments with the highest risk, planning preventive measures, and analyzing their impact.
HOW VIOLENCE IMPACTS WORKERS
One of the analyzed aspects has been the effect of violence on the emotional health of professionals and on the functioning of the health organizations themselves. In this framework, preliminary results of a multicenter study promoted by the Consorci Sanitari Alt Penedès i Garraf have been made known, in which seven public hospital groups that gather around 10,000 workers collaborate.
Based on the information collected in 489 questionnaires, it has been confirmed that those who have suffered episodes of violence present worse indicators of well-being at work and a greater negative impact related to their work activity. These effects worsen as the perceived severity of the assaults increases.
Experts have emphasized that the scope of the assaults cannot be assessed solely by the number of physical injuries or work absences they generate, but that psychological sequelae, possible changes in the relationship with patients, and the influence on clinical decision-making must also be taken into account.
With the intention of avoiding violent situations, the speakers have pointed out that some health professionals may end up taking on care demands that are not justified. Likewise, they have observed an increase in the desire to request a transfer of service or center.
ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM
In light of this scenario, they have insisted on the importance of treating violence as a workplace safety issue, organizational health, and quality of care, and not just as a sum of isolated cases.
The table has served to present different initiatives aimed at reducing risks and strengthening the response capacity of health institutions against assaults. In this sense, the training of professionals in communication skills, conflict management, and verbal de-escalation techniques has been highlighted.
In this context, participants have called for a joint action between health centers, professional organizations, and security forces and bodies, focused on prevention, the implementation of action protocols, and the creation of support devices for affected individuals.
In the same way, they have emphasized the relevance of consolidating a culture of zero tolerance towards aggression, avoiding the assumption that insults, threats, or coercion are normal, and rejecting that they are an inherent part of work in the healthcare field.