In 1995, following the physical assault of a nursing assistant from the Emergency Department by a patient and two accompanying persons, the Limoges University Hospital set up self-defense training for its staff, very often women exposed to violence. Today more and more hospitals are now using this method to fight daily violence.
These internships were established by Doctor Dominique Grouille, anesthesiologist at the Limoges University Hospital, and François Smolis, a psychiatric nurse who also teaches karate.
“Restless or violent patients, aggressive families, staff regularly have to face insults, threats, even physical attacks, without ever forgetting their role as caregiver,” explains Dr Dominique Grouille.
This original self-defense method (Method filed by Grouille D.) aims to prevent and manage user violence against hospital staff, in particular in the most exposed services: Emergencies, SAMU, psychiatry, etc.
“But, within a hospital, we do not respond to violence as we could outside. Our role imposes on us the respect and the physical and moral integrity of the hospitalized person in all circumstances, recalls Doctor Grouille. the meaning of violence.
The purpose of the internships is to help caregivers to cope with the most critical situations, verbal or physical aggression. But these are violent acts within the confines of the hospital where any hospitalized person is considered a patient.
“It would indeed be inconceivable that this type of training could encourage the least violence on the part of caregivers against the sick. This is why physical techniques are only used as a very last resort, with the absolute imperative of strictly respecting the physical and moral integrity of the hospitalized person as well as of the nursing staff ”recalls Dr Dominique Grouille.
This method therefore insists more on the techniques of defusing conflict situations through dialogue, the careful neutralization of agitated patients and a part of self-defense where very simple gestures, few in number but versatile, are applicable by all and adapted to the context. hospital.
