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Jacquelyn Slomka, PhD
Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic Foundation

JAMA. 1992;268(8):984-985.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—As a health care professional with more than 20 years' experience in four major American medical centers, I offer the following reflections on violence and health care. American society, perhaps more than any other society in the world, is characterized by its violence. A cultural propensity toward violence pervades all societal institutions, including medicine and health care. Although regrettable, it is therefore not unusual that health care professionals often find themselves witness to, victims of, and perhaps unquestioning participants in violence in the hospital setting. That medical care in itself can be extremely violent is often a shocking revelation for clinical newcomers as they watch patients sustain multiple violations of their bodies, the most brutal of which is perhaps cardiopulmonary resuscitation.¹

Another kind of violence in the hospital setting is interpersonal. Verbal and physical abuse toward medical students, residents, nurses, and other health care workers probably . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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