Healthcare: 18,000 assaults in 2025, for every nurse six assaults per year

"Protecting health and social workers is not only a duty," he added, "but a guarantee for citizens to have quality and safer care.

Aggressors are predominantly patients, followed by family members/caregivers and there is a clear prevalence of verbal aggression (69%) compared to physical aggression (25%) and against property (6%), as in 2024.

The female sex is the most affected, with a percentage exceeding 60% in most regions.

Incidents of violence, whether physical or verbal, mainly concern nursing staff (55%), followed by doctors (16%) and socio-medical workers (11%). Twelve per cent of the reports then concern other professional categories, such as non-healthcare employees and front office workers (3%), vigilantes and rescue workers (9%).

Assaults occur mainly in hospitals, with the first aid station, psychiatric diagnostic and treatment services and patient areas being the most critical places. Compared to last year, the number of reports in penal institutions remained stable (428 vs. 433).

'It should be specified,' the ministry explained, 'that a higher result is probably an indication of a more widespread culture of reporting rather than a higher number of assaults'.

Again with a view to strengthening safety in the health care sector to protect those who work daily in the health service, Schillaci updated the "Ministerial Recommendation No. 8" for the prevention of acts of violence against health and social care workers". 

Now, all workers involved in care and ancillary care activities, as well as those engaged in support services, such as front office staff and Cups, are also included, and work contexts are analysed to identify risk factors and vulnerability situations as well as organisational and preventive measures for healthcare facilities.

There are also provisions for taking charge of the assaulted employee with psychological support, the organisation of training events and the recommendation to implement security systems with panic buttons or portable alarms in places where the risk is high, closed-circuit 24-hour video surveillance, while respecting privacy, and if necessary fixed or portable metal-detectors, as well as the use of audio/video devices and/or body-cams for staff most at risk.

The Recommendation also highlights the need to implement interventions to minimise users' stress factors, such as comfortable reception rooms, the installation of alerts informing waiting patients of possible overcrowding and, in strategic locations (wards, waiting room, reception) the use of signage with messages to raise awareness andinform citizens that acts of violence constitute a crime.

"The awareness campaigns we see these days are right and necessary, but we must recognise that violence in emergency rooms is often the symptom of a deeper problem," says Alessandro Riccardi, president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine (Simeu), emphasising how emergency professionals work "in structures under pressure, with staff shortages, often inadequate spaces, and an increasing workload".

This is why 'structural interventions are needed to make work in emergency rooms sustainable with investments in human resources, training, space and care pathways'.

For the president of Fiaso, the federation of local health authorities and hospitals, Giuseppe Quintavalle, health authorities must be increasingly proactive in accompanying and supporting their professionals also in the path of denunciation. "Those who work in health care facilities, doctors, nurses, social and health care workers, and all health care workers, must be defended and protected," he emphasises. "Episodes of violence are unacceptable and must be combated with determination, but they must not discourage either health care workers or citizens who continue to believe in the value of the public health service.

Our health system 'remains one of the few truly free, fair and universal, 24-hour health services. Defending health workers means defending this heritage and the right to health of all citizens,' Quintavalle concludes.

On the occasion of the Day against Violence against Health Care Professionals, the Federation of Nursing Professionals published the results of a survey involving 6,232 professionals. 

Well, in 2,771 stated that they had been assaulted in the last 12 months. They represent 44% of the total, the majority are women and work in the public sector.

What is striking is the number of assaults detected: higher than the number of people assaulted.

The incidents number 12,000 for an average of 6 per year suffered by each registrant, with a prevalence of cases of verbal violence.

"The restrictive regulations that have been introduced, which have given operators greater protection under criminal law in cases of violence, are welcome,' explains Luigi Baldini, president of Enpapi, 'but it is clear that they are not enough. We must put in place concrete interventions in emergency rooms, such as creating new police stations in hospitals and strengthening control measures in the territory'.

"Striking health professionals, who are the headmasters of care, undermines the right to health for everyone," concludes the resident of the Fno Tsrm and Pstrp, Diego Catania, representing 18 health professions and 165,000 professionals. We ask the institutions,' emphasises Catania, 'for more effective measures against violence in healthcare settings, preventing it, in order to strengthen the dialogue with patients and family members, our allies in the protection of health'.