Staff attitudes towards aggression in health care: a review of the literature
- 18 February 2005
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
- Vol. 12 (1), 3-13
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2004.00772.x
Abstract
The aim of this literature review was to explore the attitudes of health care workers towards inpatient aggression and to analyse the extent to which attitudes, as defined from a theoretical point of view, were addressed in the selected studies. Databases from 1980 up to the present were searched, and a content analysis was done on the items of the selected studies. The concepts 'cognition' and 'attitude' from the framework of 'The Theory of Reasoned Action' served as categories. The self-report questionnaire was the most common instrument used and three instruments specifically designed to measure attitudes were found. These instruments lacked profound validity testing. From a total of 74 items, two thirds focussed on cognitions and only a quarter really addressed attitudes towards aggression. Research was particularly concerned with the cognitions that nurses had about aggression, and attitudes were studied only to a limited extent. Researchers used different instruments, which makes it difficult to compare results across settings.Keywords
This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
- Attitudes toward patient aggression amongst mental health nurses in the ‘zero tolerance’ era: associations with burnout and length of experienceJournal of Clinical Nursing, 2002
- HOVIS - The Hertfordshire/Oxfordshire Violent Incident StudyJournal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 2002
- Aggression and violent behaviour in general practice: population based survey in the north of EnglandBMJ, 2000
- Patient aggression in a general hospital setting: Do nurses perceive it to be a problem?International Journal of Nursing Practice, 1998
- Aggression in clinical settings: nurses’viewsJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1997
- Violence to staff in a general hospital settingJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1996
- Patient Assault: A Comparison of Patient and Staff PerceptionsIssues in Mental Health Nursing, 1995
- Aggression in psychiatry: a qualitative study focusing on the characterization and perception of patient aggression by nurses working on psychiatric wardsJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1994
- Violence in general practice: a survey of general practitioners' views.BMJ, 1991