ABSTRACT

Background and Objective: Emergency ward of hospitals is usually the first place that patient and his/her family faces with, and aggression towards personnel is the most common reaction that they may do. This study was aimed to determine frequency and characteristics of violence against nurses in emergency wards.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Our sample included all 138 nurses working in emergency wards of all teaching hospitals in Rasht. All of nurses were studied in 2010 by census method using a researcher made questionnaire. Our questionnaire had two sections, one including 7 questions about personal information of nurses and another including 10 questions about number and characteristics of violence. Data was analyzed by SPSS v.16 software, using descriptive and analytical statistics.

Results: Findings showed that 102 persons (74.6%) of 138 nurses had experience of verbal violence. Violence had no significant correlation with age, work experience, marital status, education level, work shift, holidays and transferred patient (P<0.0.5). However, it had a significant correlation with nurse's worries (P=0.015), male gender (P=0.042), night shift (P=0.001), male relatives of patient (P=0.01), patient's consciousness (P=0.01), referring to hospital at night (P= 0.01) and their discontent from some wards (P= 0.01). 

Conclusion: The findings suggested a high rate of violence in emergency wards and several factors may play a role in causing violence. So, paying attention to the underlying causes of violence and holding classes and workshops in teaching hospitals can be effective in reducing hospital violence.

Keywords: Violence, Emergency, Nurse