The Perception of aggression towards the medical personnel of psychiatric wards in Poland and in Norway : a comparative analysis

Background and objectives: Psychiatric hospitals are unique in character. In their work the personnel frequently encounter aggression on the part of patients and their families. A difficulty in describing the impact of aggression on the quality of care lies in the fact that countries differ in terms of their approach to treatment, education systems, as well as the standards and algorithms of dealing with aggression that occur within a health care facility. The objective of the present study was to find out whether there are any differences in the attitudes and perception of patients’ aggression prevalent amongst groups of personnel from Poland and Norway. This issue has yet to be discussed in the subject literature; however, it should be assumed that such differences exist, so the question pertains to their direction and intensity. Methods: Two tools were used to identify the attitudes of the medical personnel towards aggression: POAS (Perception of Aggression Scale) and ATAS (Attitudes Towards Aggression Scale). The research comprised 280 people – the personnel of psychiatric wards from the psychiatric hospital in Bergen, Norway (n= 140 ) and from the psychiatric hospitals in Żurawica and Jarosław in Poland (n= 140 ). Results: Statistically significant differences were demonstrated between the attitudes and perception of aggression by the medical personnel in Poland and in Norway (p> 0.001). The Norwegian personnel more frequently perceive aggression as positive behaviour, associated with the protection of one’s own territory. On the other hand, the Polish staff more often regard aggression as negative, offensive and intrusive behaviour. Conclusions: The perception of aggression towards the medical staff of psychiatric wards in Poland and Norway differs

Efektywność narzędzi do oceny skuteczności treningu zapobiegania zachowaniom agresywnym wobec personelu medycznego w perspektywie międzykulturowej

Aggressive behavior poses a serious problem to medical staff. It has nu­merous consequences for the employees: they may experience anger, helplessness and even burnout, which ultimately affects the therapeu­tic process in a negative way. To reduce these negative consequences, a number of solutions are put forward, including training to prevent aggression. The content and programs of this type of training remain open, however, the literature recommends focusing on issues related to preventing the occurrence of aggressive behavior. The training is intended to provide the staff with adequate knowledge of how to deal with the aggressive behavior of patients, although this is not the only effect. It also affects the attitudes and sense of self-efficacy of partici­pants. The effectiveness of the training in this area is measurable. Ap­propriate tools are used to this end, provided by the trainers to the trainees. However, one should take into account the aspects of inter­cultural differences, such as different training systems, principles of patient care or education, which may condition the effects and changes resulting from training to prevent aggression.Zachowania agresywne stanowią poważny problem w pracy personelu medycznego. Mają one liczne konsekwencje dla pracowników; odczu­wają oni złość, poczucie bezsilności, a nawet doświadczają wypalenia zawodowego, które ostatecznie wpływa w sposób negatywny na proces terapeutyczny. Zmierzając do ograniczenia negatywnych konsekwen­cji tego procesu, proponuje się wiele rozwiązań, do których należą tre­ningi zapobiegania agresji. Treść i program tego typu szkoleń mają charakter otwarty, jednak literatura przedmiotu zaleca koncentrację na zagadnieniach związanych z przeciwdziałaniem wystąpieniu zacho­wań agresywnych. Treningi w założeniu mają na celu wyposażenie personelu w odpowiednią wiedzę dotyczącą zasad postępowania wo­bec zachowań agresywnych pacjentów, jakkolwiek nie jest to ich jedy­ny efekt. Wpływają one także na postawy i poczucie własnej skutecz­ności uczestników. Efektywność treningu w tym zakresie jest możliwa do zmierzenia. Służą temu odpowiednie narzędzia, które prowadzący szkolenie może przekazać swoim kursantom. Należy jednak uwzględ­niać aspekt różnic międzykulturowych – inne systemy szkolenia, zasa­dy opieki nad pacjentem czy też wychowanie mogą warunkować uzy­skane efekty i zmiany, będące efektem treningu zapobiegania agresji

Virtual team-cooperation from home-office: a quantitative diary study of the impact of daily transformational- and passive-avoidant leadership – and the moderating role of task interdependence

During the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the workforce moved from office setting to home-office and virtual teamwork. Whereas the relationship between leadership and team cooperation in physical settings is well documented – less is known about how daily virtual team cooperation is influenced by daily constructive as well as destructive leadership, and how intervening mechanisms influence this relationship. In the present study, we test the direct effect of daily transformational- and passive avoidant leadership, respectively, on the daily quality of virtual team cooperation – and the moderating effect of task interdependence. Using virtual team cooperation as outcome, we hypothesized that (a) transformational leadership relates positively to virtual team cooperation, (b) passive-avoidant leadership relates negatively, and (c) moderated by task interdependence. Our hypotheses were tested in a 5-day quantitative diary study with 58 convenience sampled employees working from home in virtual teams. The results show that virtual team cooperation is a partially malleable process – with 28% variation in daily virtual team cooperation resulting from within team variation from day to day. Surprisingly, the results of multilevel modeling lend support only to the first hypothesis (a). Taken together, our findings suggest that in virtual settings, inspirational and development-oriented transformational leadership plays a key role in daily team cooperation, while passive-avoidance has little impact – independently of task interdependence. Hence, in virtual team settings, the study shows that “good is stronger than bad” – when comparing the negative effects of destructive leadership to the positive effect of constructive and inspirational leadership. We discuss the implications of these findings for further research and practice