VIOLENCE IN PSYCHIATRIC-HOSPITALS - ARE CERTAIN STAFF PRONE TO BEING ASSAULTED

The study reported here investigates (a) whether certain staff in psyc hiatric hospitals are more prone to being assaulted; (b) whether such proneness can be defined in terms of fixed attributes of these individ uals (e.g. sex, personality); and (c) whether staff and patients with certain attributes are regularly combined in violent incidents. The ch aracteristics of 65 nurses and 22 patients involved in 100 consecutive violent incidents were examined. A quarter of hospital staff were ass aulted over 3 months but few were assaulted repeatedly. Those who were assaulted more than once were usually assaulted by the same patient, indicating problematic relationships rather than problematic individua ls. Only two variables (age and grade) varied significantly between th e assaulted and control group staff. It is argued that future research should focus on staff and patient behaviour in violent incidents rath er than the characteristics of each.