David Mcgettigan, Khalid Umar Gill, Muhammad Irfan, Ramla Zahoor, Brian O’boyle.
Physical assault by psychiatric patients against mental health staff.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;5(4):768-70.

Objectives: To find out the nature and factors involved in the incidents of physical violence by the psychiatric patients against the mental health staff. Study design: The design of this study was a retrospective questionnaire survey type. Period: From January 2009 to December 2011 (2 years) Setting: This study was carried out at three different psychiatric hospitals of Ireland. Methods: Permission was taken from the ethical and research committees of all three psychiatric centres. Then data analysis was carried out about the patients as well as the participants. %age of different major and minor psychiatric disorders were found. A questionnaire was formulated and was the compared with standard questionnaires in the literature subsequently was sent for peer review. The participants were then recruited using the employee register. A written consent was taken from all the participants. They were given code numbers and their names and designations were kept un-identified. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the demographic characteristics. The level of significance was set at P<0.05. Results: Of the 138 mental health workers who completed the questionnaire, 50 had been physically assaulted by psychiatric patients in the hospital within the period of their employment (36.23%).Among those 50 workers 36 were nurses who were victims of assault (72%) and 5 were psychiatric trainees registrars/SHOs(10%).Only one consultant reported as a victim of assault. The commonest type of assault was in the form of pushing or shaking (57%) followed by hitting (28%). Conclusion: These types of studies help to make better policies towards prevention of physical assaults towards mental health staff and to take steps to improve a secure and safe working environment in psychiatric wards.

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