Attitudes of nurses towards patient violence

Abstract

Psychiatric nursing takes place a volatile environment, were nurses are prone to becoming victims of violence. Evidence to support this assumption is limited in Malta due to the lack of research in this field. The purpose of this study was to examine nurses' attitudes, working in a specific area of mental health, towards patient violence. This study is quantitative and aimed to understand what mental health nurses understand by the terms 'physical violence' and 'verbal violence' also to assess the frequency of violent behaviour from patients to staff on the wards and to identify how such behaviour influences nurses attitudes towards work and patient care. Findings indicate that though nurses had an idea on what verbal and physical violence consisted of, they lacked a clear definition. Verbal violence is more common than physical violence, while physical violence was found to be reported more than verbal violence. The majority of nurses reported that their perception towards a patient after a violent incident does not change, although in general, participants reported higher healthier attitudes towards work when compared to attitudes towards patient care after a violent incident. The majority agreed that violence dose not create a negative attitude towards the work place. Nurses in the present study regarded violence as an important source of stress, the majority of nurses agreed that a lack of support does exist from hospital administration with the onset of a violent incident. Participants recognized education in the management of violence as an important issue, participants strongly agreed to ongoing education and training.