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An observational study of associations between nurse behaviour and violence in psychiatric hospitals
Author(s) -
WHITTINGTON R.,
WYKES T.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1365-2850
pISSN - 1351-0126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2850.1994.tb00024.x
Subject(s) - hostility , observational study , psychiatry , association (psychology) , medicine , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , psychiatric ward , poison control , injury prevention , psychiatric hospital , workplace violence , occupational safety and health , nursing staff , clinical psychology , nursing , psychology , medical emergency , psychotherapist , pathology
A cyclical model of violence to psychiatric nurses is proposed in this paper and a partial test of the model is reported. The model suggests that stress induced by exposure to violence leads to impaired staff performance and adoption of behaviours which make the re‐occurrence of violence more likely. We tested the proposal that certain staff behaviours (e.g. expressing verbal hostility) are associated with an increased risk of assault by observing nurse–patient interaction on 12 psychiatric wards ( n =103 nurses). The verbal and physical interaction of (1) assaulted staff, (2) staff on violent wards, and (3) staff in grades which experience high levels of assault, were compared with those of respective low risk groups. There was some evidence of an association between interaction patterns and violence. We conclude this paper by discussing the implications of the model for psychiatric nursing practice.