Factors Affecting Nursing Performance

he study was conducted with a cross sectional design. On the assumption that one quarter of nurses were exposed to violence at work (20-30%) a sample size of 288 nurses was required at 95% level of significance. Expecting a moderate participation rate, 500 nurses were asked to participate in the study. A list of all hospitals in Riyadh was obtained from different sources. Using a proportional allocation method, five hospitals were chosen as follows: one university hospital, one MOH hospital, one private hospital, the mental health hospital and one military hospital.

Within the health care facilities, the nurses were selected randomly and confidentially offered a structured questionnaire. In addition to the personal characteristics, the questionnaire inquired about exposure to violence in the hospital, the type of violence, departments of employment at the time of exposure, their perception of causes of violence in the hospitals and characteristics of the assailant.

Each questionnaire was revised for completeness and consistency in the same hospital. SPSS version 9 was used for data tabulation and analysis. Occurrence of violence was expressed as percentage.Chi square test was used to examine the association between various demographic and workplace factors and violence against nurses at 95% level of significance.

For many years, health care workers have faced a significant amount of the risk of job-related violence. Assaults represent a serious safety and health hazard for this service industry and violence against its employees is on the increase. [1] The present work revealed that 54.3% of the nurses in Riyadh had been exposed to violence. Similar findings were reported by Whitehorn and Nowlan who reviewed the issue of nurse abuse in Canada and found that half of all registered nurses have been physically assaulted in the workplace. [11] A higher rate was reported by Erickson et al where 82% of the studied nurses in mid-south USA reported exposure to patient assaults in the course of their duties. [12] This rate can not be generalized as a convenient sample from emergency departments was used.

A survey conducted in emergency departments, ICU and general floor nurses in Florida revealed that 88% and 74% of nurses were victims of verbal and physical assaults respectively in one year. [13] The present work with a somewhat higher rate of verbal assaults (93.2%), but a much lower rate of physical assaults