Physical assault by psychiatric patients against mental health staff

Objectives: to find out the nature and factors involved in the incidents of physical violence by the psychiatric patients against the mental health staff. study design: the design of this study was a retrospective questionnaire survey type. period: from january 2009 to december 2011 (2 years) setting: this study was carried out at three different psychiatric hospitals of ireland. methods: permission was taken from the ethical and research committees of all three psychiatric centres. then data analysis was carried out about the patients as well as the participants. %age of different major and minor psychiatric disorders were found. a questionnaire was formulated and was the compared with standard questionnaires in the literature subsequently was sent for peer review. the participants were then recruited using the employee register. a written consent was taken from all the participants. they were given code numbers and their names and designations were kept un-identified. descriptive statistics were used to examine the demographic characteristics. the level of significance was set at p<0.05. results: of the 138 mental health workers who completed the questionnaire,50 had been physically assaulted by psychiatric patients in the hospital within the period of their employment (36.23%). among those 50 workers 36 were nurses who were victims of assault (72%) and 5 were psychiatric trainees registrars/shos(10%). only one consultant reported as a victim of assault. the commonest type of assault was in the form of pushing or shaking (57%) followed by hitting (28%). conclusion: these types of studies help to make better policies towards prevention of physical assaults towards mental health staff and to take steps to improve a secure and safe working environment in psychiatric wards.