‘Violence is Not Part of Our Job’: A Thematic Analysis of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses’ Experiences of Patient Assaults from a New Zealand Perspective
This paper describes psychiatric mental health nurses' (PMHN) experiences of patient assaults within mental healthcare settings using a thematic analytical approach. The aim of the study was to explore and describe psychiatric mental health nurses' experiences of patient assaults. The major findings of the study related to the nature and impact of assaults and supportive strategies associated with violence perpetrated by patients against psychiatric mental health nurses. Perpetrator risk factors for patients include mental health disorders, alcohol and drug use and the inability to deal with situational crises. The injuries sustained by nurses in the context of the study include lacerations, head injuries, dislocations and bruises. Psychological harm has also occurred, including quite severe mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Protective strategies for combating negative consequences of workplace violence include practice of self-defence, social support and a supportive and consultative workplace culture with access to counselling services and assistance in all aspects, including finances. The paper concludes that while healthcare employers need to provide better support services to the healthcare professionals who are assaulted, the legal system also needs to acknowledge that assaults against nurses are a violation of human rights and violence should not to be tolerated as part of working in mental healthcare settings.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 March 2021.
All research outputs
#7,509,301
of 34,621,659 outputs
Outputs from Issues in Mental Health Nursing
#256
of 1,128 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#61,759
of 280,029 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Issues in Mental Health Nursing
#6
of 18 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,621,659 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 78th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,128 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.5. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 280,029 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 18 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 61% of its contemporaries.
