Nurses’ Perception and Attitude Toward Aggressive behavior from Patients with psychiatric Disorders

Background: Aggressive behaviour is common among patient with psychiatric disorders. Effective nursing management of patient with aggressive behaviour, is influenced not only by their clinical skills but also by nurses’ perceptions and attitude toward aggressive behaviour. Aim of the study was explore nurses’ perception and attitude toward aggressive behaviour from patients with psychiatric disorders. Setting: the study was conducted at, The Psychiatric department, and the Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery Center at Tanta university hospital affiliated to ministry of health education. Subjects: 112nurses from previous two setting. Study design: A descriptive research design was used in this studyTools: two tools: Tool I: Nurses perception regarding of aggression measuring psychiatric nurses’ perception of patient aggression. Tool II: Management of Aggression and Violence Attitude Scale, to measure attitudes toward causes of aggression and ways in which to manage such aggression. Results: It was found that around two-thirds of nurses (67.9%) had poor perception toward aggression. It was found that two-thirds of nurses had negative attitude toward aggression causes and management. In addition to presence of a statistically significant positive correlation between nurses’ perception of aggression and their attitudes. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the majority of studied nurses have poor level of perception and negative attitude toward aggressive behaviours from patients with psychiatric disorders. Recommendation: it was recommended for implementing continuous training for psychiatric nurses regarding causes and management of aggressive behaviour.