New technologies for preventing and reducing verbal and non-verbal assaults against healthcare professionals within hospitals: The state of art

This study investigates the main implications of new technologies within healthcare setting, specifically hospitals, in preventing and reducing verbal and nonverbal assaults, sometimes concrete violence, against healthcare professionals. New technologies significantly affect the way to work of healthcare professionals especially within hospitals taking into account, on one side, the need to strongly reduce the costs (spending reviewpolicy), and, on the other side, to provide effective services to citizens for making them to live in good health. Also, new technologies provide further innovative solutions for facing some specific challenges, such as the continuous and numerous episodes of violence and aggressions received by healthcare professionals during their work. This phenomenon is very spread, mostly within public hospitals in the world, above all in Italy. This study aims to analyse this phenomenon through a review of the main contributions of the literature on the topic and in the practice for building a clear and complete picture and give some useful suggestions.