Experience and attitude of psychiatric nurses towards inpatient aggression in a Nigerian psychiatric hospital

Abstract

Background: Patient aggressive behaviour is a global problem in clinical practice but more prevalent in psychiatric setting resulting in physical and psychological harms to staffs. The psychiatric nurses attitude towards the client aggression influence their approach to its management .We therefore studied the experience and attitude of psychiatric nurses towards clients’ aggression. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study. The Attitudes Towards Aggression Scale (ATAS) consisting of 47 items was used to assess attitudes towards aggression among 170 psychiatric nurses using systematic sampling technique in a Nigerian psychiatric hospital. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and independent t- test were performed to determine the differences between the ATAS components and nurses individual characteristics. Mean scores of components and standard deviation of means were also calculated. Chi square was also used to determine the association between the frequency of inpatient aggression and the individual characteristics’ of nurses. Result: The experience of inpatient aggression against psychiatric nurses is 94.7% and about 20% had experienced it more than six times in past 12 months prior to the period of this study. Psychiatric nurses perceived aggression as violent or harmful, normal, functional and offensive reaction more than intrusive, destructive, communicative or as a protective. Male nurses emphasized the inpatient aggression as normal more than the female psychiatric nurses. The frequency of inpatient aggression is predicted by the age, marital status, cadre and year of experience. Conclusions: There is a high rate of inpatient aggression against psychiatric nurses in Nigerian psychiatric hospital and a fair negative attitude toward in patient aggression. Therefore more in service training on the reason for inpatient aggression and how to react to threatening situations should be organized for psychiatric nurses especially the female nurses.