Violence in daily hospital nursing work

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe the frequency of referred verbal, physical and sexual violence and factors associated with verbal violence in nursing teams' work at public hospitals. METHODS: Cross-sectional study, involving 1509 workers at three public hospitals in Rio de Janeiro City - (RJ). Bivariate analysis and logistic regression were applied. Significance was set at 5%. RESULTS: The frequencies of verbal, physical and sexual violence amounted to 982 (65.1%), 46 (3%) and 87 (5.7%), respectively. After applying multivariate analysis, higher chances of referred verbal violence were observed among women, younger professionals, with higher education levels, nurses, who were contracted and receive low levels of social support at work. CONCLUSION: Verbal violence is frequent in the hospital work environment and associated with different characteristics. A less hostile environment needs to be built for nursing workers.