Violence in the workplace: implementing the Instant Aggression Model

Paramedics regularly go into situations where emotions run high and often with very little information about who or what they will be dealing with. Although ambulance services across the UK hold records of more than 8 500 households who have a history of violence against paramedics (Haslam, 2008), in the vast majority of cases paramedics will have no such information. An Australian study gives us some indication of the size of the problem:

‘There were 87.5% of paramedics exposed to workplace violence. Verbal abuse was the most prevalent form of workplace violence (82%), with intimidation (55%), physical abuse (38%), sexual harassment (17%), and sexual assault (4%)’ (Boyle et al, 2007).

This may only be the tip of the iceberg and does not take into account the ‘near misses’. Thankfully, paramedics do not get assaulted every day of their professional lives, but they do regularly face the threat of violence. Indeed, the fear of violence can be more terrifying than the act itself. Paramedics can suffer worse injuries playing sport and laugh it off and yet a ‘look’ can fill us with terror. The fear of the unknown is not just about what the aggressors might do, but also about how we will react emotionally and physically to that threat.