Frequency of violence against nurses and its related factors during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in emergency wards

Abstract

Context: Workplace violence in the healthcare setting is an important issue in recent years.Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of violence against emergency and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) nurses and its related factors in teaching hospitals in 2019.Setting and Design: In this cross sectional study, 140 emergency and CPR nurses who worked in hospitals of the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences randomly selected.Materials and Methods: The workplace violence in the health sector questionnaire was used.Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 20.0.Results: The mean age of the nurses was 34.48 ± 6.07 years with work experience of 10.49 ± 5.93 years. Most of them were female (n = 86; 61.4%) and married (n = 115; 82.1%). A total of 302 different types of harassment were reported during 12 months before the study including physical 55.7%, verbal/bullying 38.6%, sexual 5%, and racial 29.3%. Relatives of the patients were the main perpetrators of the violence. Association between gender and physical and sexual harassments was significant (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.043, respectively). Physical harassment was significantly associated with marital status (P = 0.044), education level (P = 0.034) and worry about workplace violence (P = 0.020). The association between racial violence with the working situation was significant (P = 0.008).Conclusion: Based on results the prevalence of workplace violence against emergency and CPR nurses is a serious problem. Future research must move from descriptive to intervention studies to provide a guideline in clinical settings.