The prevalence of violence against nurses and midwives is extremely high, early findings from our workplace safety survey suggest.
More than 300 nursing and midwifery staff and students have already shared their experiences, and we are appealing to others to do the same.
The survey, being conducted by Nursing Times in partnership with the union Unison, is seeking to establish just how big the issue of physical violence is within the professions.
Take part now.
The very early data from the survey suggests the problem is widespread.
Of the 358 nursing and midwifery professionals who had responded at the time of writing, 95% said they had experienced physical violence at work.
The most common perpetrators of the violence were patients, followed by patients’ families or other visitors.
Nurses and midwives reported being punched, kicked, grabbed, bitten, strangled and choked.
One hospital nurse based in Northern Ireland said they were attacked several times a year, and in one incident she had a gun pulled on her.
A registered nurse in England said nurses were expected to accept violence as being part of nursing.
She said: “This has gone on for years and little has ever been done about it as it seems to be ‘accepted’ that nurses will be subject to violence as part of their role and should just ‘get over it’.”
The anonymous survey will remain open until 26 February and takes less than 10 minutes to complete.
