Verbal and physical abuse against Jordanian nurses in the work environment

ABSTRACT

This descriptive cross-sectional study determined the prevalence and sources of verbal and physical workplace abuse in the last 6 months, the nurses' reactions to abuse, and their opinions about it. Data were collected by questionnaire from 447 nurses working in various departments in 3 hospitals in Amman. The prevalence of verbal and physical abuse was 37.1% and 18.3% respectively. Younger, less experienced nurses and those in emergency and intensive care departments experienced more abuse. Patients and their relatives were the usual abusers. Only 35.1% of the abused nurses reported it; of those that did not, 57.1% thought it was useless to do so, while 34.2% thought they could handle the incident without help. Over half of the abused nurses considered leaving nursing and felt their quality of work decreased because of the abuse. Negative societal image of nurses [64%] and poor support from hospital authorities [60%] were the factors the nurses believed most contributed to abuse