Citation

Yoo HJ, Suh EE, Lee SH, Hwang JH, Kwon JH. Asian Nurs. Res. (Korean Soc. Nurs. Sci.) 2018; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Intensive Care Unit, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.anr.2018.02.005

PMID

29535021

Abstract

PURPOSE: It is difficult to develop a good defense system that can prevent nurses from experiencing physical and verbal violence from patients and families in intensive care units, which are closed spaces. This study aimed to identify intensive care nurses' experience of violence from patients and families and investigate their coping methods, if there are any, in a tertiary hospital in South Korea.

METHODS: This study used a mixed methods design utilizing both a survey for collecting quantitative data and individual interviews for a qualitative one. A total of 200 intensive care nurses participated in the survey, with thirty of them taking part in individual interviews. Survey data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 program, and qualitative data with qualitative content analysis method.

RESULTS: In the survey, 99.5% of the nurses reported that they had experienced violence from the patients and 67.5% from their visitors (families or relatives). Verbal violence were reported more than physical ones. They showed moderate or severe responses to violence, scoring an average of 2.98±0.63 out of 5. The qualitative data were analyzed to draw 4 themes, 8 categories, and 17 subcategories. The four themes were perception of violence, coping with violence experience, coping resources, and caring mind after violence experience.

CONCLUSION: While intensive care nurses experience unpredicted violence from patients and their visitors, they fail to cope well with the experience. The safe working environment of intensive care units is expected to contribute to quality care and an improvement of expertise in nursing.

Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Language: en

Keywords

family; intensive care units; nurses; patients; violence