Self-defense courses for nurses against escalating aggression

Self-defense courses for nurses against the escalation of aggression and violence in hospital wards. The initiative is promoted by the nurses' union Nursing Up, which specifies however that the courses will not teach how to "attack" but rather how to "react emotionally and physically in the right way in emergency situations, when you are attacked".

Nursing Up, explains President Antonio De Palma, "does not limit itself to reporting. It acts. The self-defense courses, which are now starting in Tuscany, serve to train healthcare professionals in managing relational emergencies and personal protection. Because it is not enough to know how to treat a wound or administer therapy: today you also need to know how to defend yourself. How to avoid physical confrontation, how to speak, how to recognize a risk, how to calm a situation before it degenerates".

The courses, De Palma points out, "do not teach how to attack. On the contrary, they teach how not to get hurt. How not to suffer. The nurses will be supported by professional instructors and soon by expert psychologists, to learn not only physical defense techniques, but also communication strategies, stress management, and relationship skills in critical moments". According to the union leader, "it is not normal to have to defend one's own safety while helping a person. But this is the reality we have to dramatically deal with. If politics does not know or does not want to see, we are here. Our courses will be a model. And where there is a need, we will take them".

The courses will start for now in the health facilities of the Florence area: from the Careggi University Hospital to Meyer, passing through the ASL Toscana Centro, which deals with the city of Florence and the surrounding areas. A reality, the Tuscan one, concludes the union, which "confirms itself among the most exposed in Italy".