The Psychological Impact Of Hospital Violence On Nurses:A Qualitative Descriptive Study

Objective To understand the psychological impact of hospital violence on nurses,to explore how to improve the prevention and management of hospital violence.Methods A descriptive qualitative design was used,Purposive sampling and a maximum variation strategy was used to select participants.Nurses who experienced hospital violence were selected as participants.Semi-structured interviews were conducted.Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis.The cycles of coding and classifying were used,and themes were extracted until saturation reached.Results Ten nurses who experienced hospital violence were interviewed.After analyzing,5 themes were emerged from the interview data:the nurse's immediate strong psychological reactions of the violence,the subsequent psychological influence of the hospital violence on the nurses,the impact of violence event on cognition and attitude of nurse's work,reflections on causes of violence,and suggestions on prevention of violence.Conclusion In addition to the immediate and strong psychological reactions of the nurses to the hospital violence itself,the violence event also has subsequent psychological impacts on nurses for a period of time.There is secondary injury to the nurses in the process of violence resolution.Hospital violence causes nurses to change their cognition and attitude towards nursing work,and also influences the attitude of others in choosing nursing work.The violence event make the nurses to reflect on the causes of the violence and the prevention of violence.Self-attribution can prompt nurses to adopt active and effective ways to prevent violence.Hospital administrators should recognize and pay attention to the psychological impacts of hospital violence on nurses and adopt routine psychological interventions to avoid or mitigate secondary injury of the nurses in the process of violence resolution,attach importance to organizational support on nurses,advocate for nurses to make self-attribution,and also focus on nurses' different forms of violence prevention and provide systematic training.