Patient Violence towards Mental Health Nurses: A Concept Analysis

Abstract

Purpose. To analyse the concept of patient violence towards mental health nurses. Design and Methods. A hybrid model was adopted with literature review of 103 studies and interviews with seven mental health nurses. Findings. Patient violence was defined as a violent incident committed by patients towards nurses vulnerable to physical, verbal, emotional, and sexual violence. It was a common and frequent phenomenon with multifactorial causes and is prone to be unreported. Practice Implications. Our study findings function as the conceptual framework to measure patient violence in relevant research and allow policy development to protect mental health nurses at the practice.