Are Psychiatric Nurses More Vulnerable to Domestic Violence Compared with Nurses from Other Specialties

Abstract

Women, especially working women, suffer from domestic or intimate partner violence worldwide. Nurses are no exception. The study aim was to compare the magnitude of domestic violence and its effects among psychiatry nurses compared with nurses from other specialties. This cross-sectional comparative study was conducted on 120 psychiatric nurses from in Abbasiya Mental Hospital and 120 nurses in other specialties from El-zaitoon hospital. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire with the HITS (Hurt, Insult, Threaten, Scream) Scale for exposure to domestic violence, and the Women’s Experience with Battering (WEB) scale to assess the meanings women attribute to their exposure to domestic violence. The fieldwork lasted from April to June 2017. The nurses in the two groups had comparable demographic characteristics. More nurses in the psychiatry group were not sharing in home expenses (p=0.01), had independent house (p<0.001), had their work affecting home needs (p=0.03), and marital relations (p=0.04), and were asked to leave work by husband (p=0.03). The psychiatry nurses had significantly lower mean and median HITS scores (p=0.007). More psychiatry nurses reported thinking of leaving work as a consequence of domestic violence (p=0.001). In multivariate analysis, the independent positive predictors of the HITS score were the nurse age at marriage, husband age, sharing in home expenses, working overtime, and the work having a negative effect on marital life, while, the negative predictors were being a psychiatric nurse, age, and living in an independent house. For the effects score, the independent positive predictors were being a psychiatric nurse, having children, work having a negative effect on marital life, in addition to the HITS score, whereas the negative predictors were the income and working for need. In conclusion, the psychiatric nurses are less vulnerable to domestic violence, compared with other specialties; however, the impact of this violence is more severe among them, with a higher tendency to leave the work for this. The work environment, particularly in psychiatry should be improved with more flexible schedules and less hours of overtime work. More intervention research is suggested to assess the effectiveness of various approaches to deal with domestic violence.