Violence Experienced by Turkish Nurses and their Emotions and Behaviors

Abstract This study was conducted to determine the nurses’ exposure to violence, and their emotions and behaviors in the workplaces. The study population consisted of 219 nurses (66.5%) who worked in a state hospital located in eastern Turkey. The data was collected with a data collection questionnaire prepared by the researchers. In the evaluation of the data, number and percentage distributions, and chi-square test were used. In the paper, it was observed that 74.4 percent of nurses were exposed to verbal violence from the relatives of patients (68.0%). Nurses considered the “inadequate security measures” as the major (55.7%) cause of violence. The majority (67.6%) of nurses exposed to violence have continued to provide care to the patient, and experienced anger (60.7%). There was a relationship between the level of education of the nurses and exposure to verbal violence of the abusers (doctor, nurses), and the nurses working in shifts and in the surgical clinics were exposed to violence mostly by the patients’ relatives (p<0.05). Considering the frequent incidence of violence and its physical and psychological harm to health workers, the importance of taking institutional measures for the safety of health workers becomes prominent.