Under-reporting of violent incidents against nursing staff

Abstract

This article examines factors that contribute to nurses failing to report incidents of violence and aggression in the clinical area and it develops the information published in a previous article (Ferns and Chojnacka 2005). Broader social factors are considered, including gender, violence experienced by women, the status of the nursing profession and bureaucratic structures that contribute to under-reporting. The life experiences of individual nursing staff play a significant role in how they react to violence in the clinical area. Strategies to minimise violence against nurses should consider the social, political and personal issues that limit the reporting of violent incidents. Only by reporting such incidents can the extent of violence towards nurses be determined and minimised.

Turkish nursing students’ perceptions and experiences of bullying behavior in nursing education

“…Although nurses often come across bullying and harassment in the healthcare environment, they are reluctant to complain because they tend to accept it as just "part of the job". Therefore workplace abuse in the healthcare sector is severely underreported [9,10] .…”

La violence dans les services d’urgences : évaluation d’une politique de réduction de la violence dans un service d’accueil des urgences parisien

“…Nous avons utilisé le nombre des VT déclarées par nos agents comme un des indicateurs de l'efficacité de notre politique. La très forte sous-déclaration des VT en milieu de soins [39], estimée à 70 % [30,41,42] a déjà été rapportée. Même si nous avons développé une culture de déclaration des événements, il est évident que les registres étudiés ne sont pas exhaustifs et ne relèvent en général que les VT considérées comme les plus graves par les agents.…”

Cognitive Learning Theory

“…Psychodynamic theory is well suited to understanding patient and family noncompliance (Menahern & Halasz, 2000), trauma and loss (Duberstein & Masling, 2000), palliative care and the deeply emotional issues of terminal illness (Chochinov & Breitbart, 2000), and the anxieties of working with long-term psychiatric residents (Goodwin & Gore, 2000). From a professional perspective, when examining the problems of bullying nurse managers or the failure of nurses to formally report incidents of violence and aggression, results indicated the need to consider childhood and adult experiences with abuse and violence, as well as guilt, low selfimage, and cultural expectations about nurses (Ferns, 2006).…”