Identification of violence in the hospital environment: perceptions of nurses

Abstract

Introduction Violence is recognised by the WHO as a major and ubiquitous public health problem, that is constantly worsening. Objectives The aim of our work was to estimate the frequency of aggressions against nurses in psychiatric and emergency departments, and to identify the factors associated with it. Methods This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study. It took place between January and March 2021, at both hospitals of Sfax (Tunisia).This study targeted 60 nurses in the psychiatry and emergency services. Results The sample comprises 35 nurses (58%) from psychiatric services and 25 nurses (42%) from emergency services, mainly females (51%) and with average age of 35 years.(+/-9). The nurses interviewed were exposed to violence quite often, in 93% of cases. Almost all nurses (90 %) experienced verbal violence, 70 % experienced physical violence and more than half (62 %) experienced psychological violence. Nearly 11% of nurses reported a sexual violence. Factors that explain or contribute to violence mentioned by the participants were as follows; The Verbal violence was significantly correlated with poor reception conditions (p=0.013). The Sexual violence was significantly correlated with young age of nurse (p=0.005). As for psychological violence, it was significantly correlated with work overload (p=0.004), a poor caregiver-patient relationship (p=0.02) and poor patient care (p=0.04). Conclusions Our study showed that violence against nurses was frequent in psychiatric and emergency departments. Various factors could modulate their occurrence such as training and improvement of the working conditions. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Keywords

• violence
• psychiatric departments
• emergency departments