Iranian pre-hospital emergency care nurses' strategies to manage workplace violence: A descriptive qualitative study.
AIM
To explore the experiences of Iranian nurses working in pre-hospital emergency care services and the strategies used to manage of workplace violence.


BACKGROUND
Pre-hospital emergency nurses are subject to workplace violence; however, little research addresses their experiences, particularly related to their strategies in dealing with workplace violence.


METHODS
A descriptive qualitative study that involved nineteen male nurses who were working in pre-hospital services collected data using semi-structured interviews and analysed it using qualitative content analysis.


RESULTS
Data analysis yielded four descriptive categories including no reaction to violence (tolerance and acceptance as common workplace conflicts), situational management (patient and scene management), confrontation (direct and indirect) and escaping the scene. Patient management was the dominant strategy used and had the best outcomes related to both patient and personnel safety.


CONCLUSION
This study showed that pre-hospital nurses use different strategies to manage violence and patient management was a common and useful strategy for managing workplace violence. However, the pre-hospital nurses have little training, insufficient support and are poorly prepared to manage workplace violence.


IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT
The development of context-based guidelines, continuing education, better-equipped ambulances that include medical and defence equipment, as well as better coordination of the police force in ambulance operations, can help to reduce workplace violence.
['Dadashzadeh|Abbas|A|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2432-1904', 'Rahmani|Azad|A|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2278-020X', 'Hassankhani|Hadi|H|', 'Boyle|Malcolm|M|', 'Mohammadi|Eisa|E|https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6169-9829', 'Campbell|Suzanne|S|']
D000328:Adult D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel D004632:Emergency Medical Services D016529:Emergency Nursing D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007492:Iran D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D036301:Qualitative Research D064450:Workplace Violence
pre-hospital emergency care workplace violence emergency medical technician nurse strategies