Three quarters of staff in care and welfare came across aggression and unwanted behaviour

About a third of these employees believe that aggression towards staff in healthcare and welfare has increased in the past year, citing the Covid-19 pandemic as the main cause.

Most healthcare workers experience aggression or other unwanted behavior from patients or clients. Nearly half of the caregivers encountered such behavior from family or visitors of patients or clients, or from bystanders. A quarter experienced this from colleagues or supervisors. For most employees, this occurred only once in the past year. A smaller group experienced it more frequently.

Verbal aggression from patients and clients is the most common, experienced by two-thirds of healthcare workers in the past year. But physical aggression (towards 38 percent of healthcare workers), sexual harassment (22 percent), and threats or intimidation (20 percent) also occur. Percentages are lower regarding family, visitors, or bystanders.

These findings are outlined in the Dutch report 'Aggression and unwanted behavior in the workplace'. This research was commissioned by and conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport among employees in the healthcare and welfare sector. PGGM&CO and VWS collaborate to obtain a much clearer picture of aggression and unwanted behavior and the support needs of employees.

For the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport and the social partners in the healthcare and welfare sector, the research results are an important step towards targeted approaches by employers and employees together. VWS provides subsidies for this purpose.

Room for Improvement
Healthcare workers generally report satisfaction with the support in their organizations after an aggression incident, especially by colleagues and supervisors. To better address this issue, they see room in their organizations, particularly for training and skill-building.

One in three employees opts for physical resilience training, three-quarters opt for verbal resilience training. Information sessions are also frequently mentioned, along with establishing norms and codes of conduct, providing a physically safe working environment, support, and aftercare.

Furthermore, approximately three-quarters (73 percent) of employees consider reporting incidents to be an important issue, but only just over a quarter (28 percent) see room for improvement in this area within their own organization. One in ten wanted to report an incident last year but ultimately did not.

Aggression and unwanted behavior do not only come from patients and their visitors or bystanders. It also occurs within healthcare institutions themselves, mostly involving verbal aggression or bullying. Employees who have experienced internal aggression often note negative consequences.

More than half (52 percent) were upset after internal aggression, a quarter (24 percent) experienced mental health issues, and 15 percent considered or changed jobs within the sector. Four percent are considering leaving the sector after facing aggression from patients, clients, or their visitors. In cases of aggression from colleagues, this figure rises to eight percent.

A significant portion of the respondents are members of PGGM&CO, the members' organization of the PGGM cooperative. Over eleven thousand employees participated in the survey in February 2021. They are active in ambulance care, disability care, general practitioner care, social work, youth care, disability care, nursing, care and home care, mental health care, hospitals, and university medical centers. In the survey, these sectors show varying degrees of unwanted behavior and aggression in the workplace.

A safe working environment is an important requirement for employees to continue working in the healthcare and welfare sector. The issue of how to meet the increasing demand for care in combination with growing shortages of staff prompted PGGM to use expertise and data from the pension company to support employers and employees in healthcare and welfare with additional assistance in labor market issues.

In addition, PGGM&CO offers programs to employees in the healthcare and welfare sector to help them stay mentally and physically fit during their careers. Together with IZZ, the collective membership of people in healthcare, solutions are provided to improve the health of employees in the workplace. This includes dealing with stress and workload, first aid after traumatic events, and healthy working as a healthcare professional in times of crisis.

The research 'Aggression and unwanted behavior in the workplace' provides breakdowns by sector. These sub-researches can be found on the PGGM&CO website.

About PGGM
The PGGM cooperative provides institutional clients with asset management, pension administration, and board advisory services. As of December 31, 2020, PGGM managed assets of EUR 268 billion for various pension funds and administered pensions for 4.4 million participants. Under the name PGGM&CO, the cooperative has a members' organization of approximately 765,000 employees in healthcare and welfare. Additionally, PGGM, either independently or with strategic partners, develops innovative future provisions by connecting pensions, care, housing, and work.
www.pggm.nl

About PGGM&CO
PGGM&CO is the club with over 765,000 members who work or have worked in healthcare and welfare. At PGGM&CO, we believe that fit employees are the basis for a healthy sector. This means paying sufficient attention to yourself because you can only truly help others when you take good care of yourself.