workplace violence against nurses working in khorramabad educational hospitals and their confronting behaviors in violent events

workplace violence against nurses working in khorramabad educational hospitals and their confronting behaviors in violent events    hosseinabadi r [1] biranvand sh [2] *,anbari kh [3] ,heidari h [4]     received: 5 may , 2013 accepted: 4 jul , 2013    abstract  background & aims : workplace violence is considered as a health problem in nursing profession. the aim of this study was to determine nurses behavior meeting to workplace violence and their confronting reactions in violent events.   materials & methods : this descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted on all of nursing staffs of khorramabad educational hospital in 2011. a questionnaire containing, personal and occupational characteristics, prevalence of four types of occupational violence (physical, verbal, racial and sexual), nurses confronting behavior and violence predisposing factors was used. after collecting, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including mean and frequencies by spssversion16.   results: analysis of the data showed that the most frequent type of violence against nurses was verbal violence committed by patient and their relatives (%78.5), managers (%46.2) and staffs (%43.1) respectively. the least frequent type of workplace violence was the sexual one. most of the nurses' confronting violent behavior was calling hospital guard, and most of the nurses’ confronting behavior was ineffective.   conclusion: the result showed high prevalence of violence against nursing staffs, and the use of ineffective confronting behavior by nurses. therefore it is necessary to develop educational program to empower the nursing staff against violent events.   key words: nursing, workplace violence, occupational violence, confronting behaviors     address: nursing and midwifery faculty, lorestan university of medical sciences, khorramabad, iran   tel: (+98) 661 6200140   email : [email protected]   [1] msc , nursing faculty , khorramabad school of nursing and midwifery, lorestan university of medical sciences  [2] msc , nursing faculty , khorramabad school of nursing and midwifery, lorestan university of medical sciences, khorramabad, iran (corresponding author)   3 phd, faculty of medicine, lorestan university of medical sciences, khorramabad, iran  [4] msc , nursing faculty , khorramabad school of nursing and midwifery, lorestan university of medical sciences, khorramabad, iran