Unsafety in Workplace / Nurses’ Dominant Perception in Psychiatric Wards: A Qualitative Study Download PDF

Purpose: Nurses are responsible for patients with different diagnoses in psychiatric wards. In these wards, numerous and diverse safety events occur for nurses, leading to adverse physical and psychological consequences and effects for them. The present study aims to investigate nurses’ experiences about working in psychiatric wards. Methods: This is a qualitative research based on conventional content analysis and inductive method, 19 nurses were selected from three psychiatric centers using purposive sampling. Data were collected using the in-depth semi-structured interview. Findings: According to continuous analysis and comparison of data one theme (insecurity in the workplace) and three categories (insecurity umbrella, mistrustful space, and fear of the patient) emerged. Each category has several different sub-categories. Conclusions: The results showed that nurses have inappropriate perceptions about safety events in psychiatric wards. Since the nurses themselves are the most important designers of patient safety and their perceptions have an impact on patient safety. Thus knowing this issue indicates the need for appropriate measures to promote safety, nurses’ education, nurses’ health, and the need for further investigations.