Coping styles toward hospital violence in clinical nurses: An application of q methodology

Abstract

Purpose: Clinical nurses are at high risk of incurring hospital violence during their working life. Hospital violence and its outcomes have an impact on the job satisfaction, the recruitment and retention of nurses as well as the quality of care delivered to patients. The purpose of this study was to identify coping styles toward hospital violence in clinical nurses using Q-methodology. Methods: Q-methodology, which analyzes the subjectivity of each type of attitude, and coping styles was used. The 40 selected Q-statements from each of 35 participants were classified into the shape of a normal distribution using a 9-point scale. The collected data were analyzed using the pc-QUANAL program. Results: The results revealed four discrete groups of clinical nurses toward hospital violence: take strong action and promote the recurrence prevention, appear psychosomatic symptoms, investigate the cause and focus on prevention, and request hospital assistance and keep up my duty. Conclusion: The findings indicate that development of nursing intervention program based on the four types could beneficially contribute to the violence prevention in hospital. © 2013 Korean Society of Adult Nursing.