318 Verbal and physical abuse against Jordanian nurses in the work environment

Abstract

This descriptive cross-sectional study determined the prevalence and sources of verbal and physical workplace abuse in the last 6 months, the nurses' reactions to abuse, and their opinions about it. Data were collected by questionnaire from 447 nurses working in various departments in 3 hospitals in Amman. The prevalence of verbal and physical abuse was 37.1% and 18.3% respectively. Younger, less experienced nurses and those in emergency and intensive care departments experienced more abuse. Patients and their relatives were the usual abusers. Only 35.1% of the abused nurses reported it; of those that did not, 57.1% thought it was useless to do so, while 34.2% thought they could handle the incident without help. Over half of the abused nurses considered leaving nursing and felt their quality of work decreased because of the abuse. Negative societal image of nurses (64%) and poor support from hospital authorities (60%) were the factors the nurses believed most contributed to abuse. ,1 % des membres du personnel infirmier ayant subi des violences notifiaient l'incident ; parmi ceux qui s'abstenaient de le notifier, 57,1 % pensaient que la démarche était inutile et 34,2 % qu'ils pouvaient gérer l'incident sans aide. Plus de la moitié du personnel infirmier ayant subi des violences envisageait de changer de métier et avait le sentiment que la qualité de leur travail était affectée en raison de cette violence. L'image négative du personnel infirmier dans la société (64 %) et le soutien médiocre consenti par l'administration des hôpitaux (60 %) étaient les facteurs qui contribuaient le plus à la violence selon l'avis du personnel infirmier.

Workplace physical violence, verbal violence, and mobbing experiencedby nurses at a university hospital

“…In the literature, frequencies varying between 2% and 75% for physical violence, 37% and 100% for verbal violence, and 3% and 30% for mobbing were reported, figures that varied depending on the actual differences as well as the differences in methodology (4-6,9,11,13,14, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. In studies reporting lower percentages of physical and verbal violence in comparison to our study, different health personnel were evaluated together, and studies identifying a lower frequency of mobbing than our study were conducted among nurses from psychiatric wards (9,13,16,18,20). Many studies frequently report that nurses working in psychiatric wards are most subject to physical and verbal violence (4,9,14,17,18,20).…”

Workplace Violence and its Associated Factors among Nurses

“…Our study shows that staff nurses had experienced more violence than ANMs which is paradoxical with the findings of a study conducted in Iran and Jordan, which showed that nurses with lower position were exposed to workplace violence. 7,23 The difference in findings might be due to variation in age and working experience between nurses and ANMs. Unlike with this study results, a study conducted in Southern Thailand 19 showed that nurses working in rotating shifts experienced more violence than nurses in fixed shifts.…”

The effect of aggression management training programmes for nursing staff and students working in an acute hospital setting. A narrative review of current literature

“…Perpetrators may be co-workers, managers, patients or visitors (3). The majority of acts of physical or verbal aggression originate from patients or visitors (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9). While most incidents of patient or visitor aggression (PVA) arise in mental health and accident and emergency departments (10,11), PVA also occurs in other clinical settings, such as medical and surgical departments (12,13).…”

“…While most incidents of patient or visitor aggression (PVA) arise in mental health and accident and emergency departments (10,11), PVA also occurs in other clinical settings, such as medical and surgical departments (12,13). Frequent staff exposure to aggression hampers recruitment and retention, and engenders a multitude of problems in the workforce, such as heightened risk of burnout, sleep disturbance, anxiety, as well as intent to leave the profession (6,9,14,15). PVA is influenced by a variety of internal, external and interactional factors (16) and there is to date no comprehensive theory of PVA and how it emerges in the inpatient setting (17).…”

“…Nurses' attitudes have been examined from a number of vantage points (11): their experience and prediction of aggression (27), attitudes towards physical assault (28), or causal factors and management of aggression (29). In clinical practice, nurses are perpetually challenged to cope with the emotional impact of PVA (6,9). The importance of strengthening the ability to manage demanding situations has only recently been acknowledged.…”