Violence toward emergency physicians: A prospective-descriptive study.

BACKGROUND: The highest rate of workplace violence occurs in the health sector, although most cases remain unreported. Emergency services face the majority of these incidents for many reasons, such as the patient profile, long waiting time, and overcrowding. We aimed to determine the characteristics and causes of violence toward emergency physicians. METHODS: The acts of violence toward emergency physicians over a one-year period were prospectively recorded. After a violent incident took place, a third party separately interviewed the physician exposed to the violent behavior and the perpetrator who displayed this behavior. We examined the perpetrator's reasons for violence, their demographic characteristics, and the medical complaints of patients involved in such events to determine the characteristics and causes of violence. RESULTS: Of the violent acts investigated, 85.1% were verbal, and most were directed toward male doctors by the young male relatives of the patients. More than half of the violent acts occurred within the 15 minutes of presentation to emergency service (60.5%) and at off-hours (69.4%). Concerning the health insurance, 20.4% of the cases were covered by the free green card system, and a small number of the perpetrators of violence lived in rural areas (38.2%). The most common reason for violent behavior was the patients' or their relatives' dissatisfaction with the examination or treatment method (38.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Appropriate communication should be established with the patients, and they should be adequately informed about the treatments and interventions to be performed in order to prevent possible acts of violence.

Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children presenting with foreign body ingestion.

BACKGROUND: Foreign body ingestion is a common condition in children. We aimed to compare the incidence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children that ingested foreign bodies with healthy children. METHODS: The study group consisted of 3- to 17-year-old pediatric patients admitted to the emergency department after foreign body ingestion, and the control group was formed with children having similar demographic and cultural characteristics that presented to the same department for non-traumatic causes. After initial intervention and stabilization, we administered the Conners' Parent Rating Scales-Revised (CPRS-R) to both groups. RESULTS: The study group consisted of 53 patients with a mean age of 7.83 ±â€¯4.36 and the control group comprised 47 children with a mean age of 7.72 ±â€¯3.48 years. There were no statistically significant differences between the study and control groups in terms of age, gender, and parental education levels (p > 0.05 for each). The foreign objects most ingested by children were coins (32.1%), followed by needles (15.1%) and beads (9.4%), and all the patients recovered without complications and were discharged. All the CPRS-R subscale scores were significantly higher in the study group than in the control group (p < 0.001). The parental education levels of the study group were not significantly correlated with DSM-IV hyperactivity-impulsivity and DSM-IV total. CONCLUSION: We found that the incidence of ADHD symptoms may be high in children referred to emergency services after accidentally ingesting foreign bodies.