WORKPLACE VIOLENCE AGAINST NURSES IN AHVAZ EDUCATIONAL HOSPITALS

Violence is an occupational health and safety issue that nurses may be faced with
in their day-to-day activities. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent violence against
nurses and finding out its relation with some individual and organizational factors.
Materials & Methods: This was an analytic cross sectional study that carried out in Ahvaz teaching
hospitals. Sample was 192 nurses that were selected randomly. Data was gathered using a four section
questionnaire included nurse’s demographic and organizational characteristics, questions about
physical and verbal violence and manager actions to reduce violence. For analyzing data we used
logistic regression model and descriptive statistics in SPSS software (V.16).
Results: 43.8% of nurses experienced physical violence and 74% of them experienced verbal violence
once in their working surroundings. 31.2% of nurses had raised concerns about the outbreak of
workplace violence and 39.6% of nurses rarely were concerned about work place violence. 49.2% and
45.2% of nurses that experienced physical and verbal violence were dissatisfied with address the
violence problem. The results of logistic regression analysis model showed that there is a significant
relationship between violence and variables such as age, marital status, location of work, rotating
shifts, recruitment status and patients gender.
Conclusion: Since lots of violence happens, more attention must be paid to this issue. A pro-active
response, participatory approaching and developing new protocols for reporting of violence incidence
may be useful for eliminating the violence threats