Nurses' perceptions of violence in the Accident & Emergency Department

Abstract

The study was conducted to obtain a general view of the verbal and physical violence towards nurses from patients and/or their relatives in the Accident and Emergency (A & E) Department. In the United Kingdom and the United States, different studies were conducted to investigate and identify the types of violence that health care workers are faced with. These studies evidenced that the occurrence of violent incidents towards nursing staff in the A & E Department is relatively high. A descriptive, non-experimental approach was used for this study. This was achieved by means of a questionnaire which was administered to a randomly selected sample of nurses working in the A & E Department. This study dealt with the different forms of violence and the various aspects that are related to violence. A number of recommendations based on the findings of the study were listed, such as for example the creation of a policy by the hospital management on how to deal with violent situations, in order to ensure a safer work environment for the A & E nurses.