VIOLENCE TOWARDS NURSING PROFESSIONALS: A FOCUSED ETHNOGRAPHY

Abstract

Objective: To describe the experiences of nursing professionals concerning workplace violence. Material and Method: Qualitative study with a focused ethnographic design. Participants were selected using non-probability snowball sampling. Data were collected through 25 in-depth telephone interviews between January and June 2018 in three hospitals of Veracruz, Mexico. The theoretical framework was based on the Interactive Model of workplace violence designed by Chappell and Di Martino and the QUIRKOS software was used for the thematic analysis. Results: Findings alluded to the causes and types of aggression, the victim’s reaction to the aggression and the aggressor. Participants were mostly women (72%), who worked the morning shift (52%), in the emergency and the internal medicine services (28%). 68% indicated not having reported the aggression to their supervisors and identified the physician as the main aggressor (44%), followed by the patient’s family members (20%). Conclusion: It is critical that hospitals implement strategies to avoid workplace violence, as well as guidelines that nurses and other healthcare professionals can follow in case of violence in the work setting.