Patient Violence towards Mental Health Nurses: A Concept Analysis

Table 3

Themes derived in the fieldwork phase.

Category	Theme cluster	Theme
Types of violence	Emotional violence	Bullying (e.g., spreading rumours, constantly reminding of patients’ presence, or demanding apologies repeatedly)
	Physical violence	Physical assaults (e.g., slapping the cheek, scratching, or pinching)
		Physical threats (e.g., throwing something towards the nurse)
	Sexual harassment	Physically touching with sexual intention
		Verbal insults with sexual intention
	Verbal violence	Insults about nurses’ appearance
		Swearing at nurses
		Verbal threats
Antecedents	Predictable factors	Internal factors
		External factors
		Situational factors
	Unpredictable factors	Hard to grasp the reason
		Occurred suddenly
Consequences	Physical injuries	Physical injuries
	Psychological response	Emotional distress
		Maintaining physical/psychological safe distances from violent patients
		Psychological trauma
		Sceptical attitude to their jobs
	Seeking support	Disappointed with lousy support from their institution
		Seeking emotional support from colleagues
Attributes	Common and frequent	Common phenomenon
		Frequently occurred
	Hiding incidents	Fear of blame from colleagues
		Feeling helplessness
		Considered their injuries as trivial
	Vulnerability of nurses to violence	Accepted patient violence as natural
		Blaming the victim
		One-sidedness
		Responsibility to their patients and profession
		Self-criticism