Objective:

Identify the aggressions against the doctors and nurses in the emergency services by the users of the health system.

Materials and methods:

Cross-sectional descriptive study. A non-probabilistic sampling study of an intentional type was carried out per hospital unit taking into account the clustering by city networks. A voluntary and personal survey was applied to physicians (120) and nurses (120) of the emergency services of the four Bogotá public networks.

Results:

87.1 % of all health professionals who participated in the study reported that they were subjected to violent acts by users during the development of their work activities. 56.6 % of the attacks were verbal, 2.1 % physical and 28.3 % both physical and verbal. 90.8 % of the physicians reported having received some type of aggression, while 83.3 % of the nurses also reported having undergone them (Chi2 = 0.4962, p = 0.4811).

Conclusions:

The health professionals who work in the emergency services are subject to permanent verbal, physical or both aggressions by the users of the system.

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