Health Care Violence and Abuse towards Nurses in Hospitals in North of Iran

AIM In the current survey, we explored the prevalence of verbal and physical abuse against the nurses in different hospitals of north of Iran. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional survey. Nurses were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire (Staff Observation Scale Revised (SOAS-R)). The sample covered 400 participants from 5 hospitals of Mazandaran University of medical sciences, Sari, Iran. RESULTS The sampling size involved 271 participants (271 forms from 400 forms (sampling population) were filled completely) including 193 female (71.2 %) and 78 male (28.8 %) participants. 79 (29.1%) participants experienced physical abuse and 260 (95.9%) participants were abused verbally. It was noted that in 35 cases (44.3%) the patients were the source of physical abuse and in 44 cases (55.6%) the members of patients' family were the source. In 79 (30.3%) cases the patients were the source of verbal violence and in 139 (53.4%) cases the members of patients' family were the source and in 42 (16.1%) cases coworkers were the sources. CONCLUSION Verbal abuse was a common type of violence in our study in north of Iran. There is a requirement to increase awareness about this significant problem among health care workers.