Relationship between Nurses’ Communication Skills and the Violence They Experience in Emergency Departments Affilated with Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences

Violence against nurses is a growing global problem in all countries such as Iran. Due to the importance of this issue, this study was performed to investigate the relationship between the communication skills of nurses and the violence they experience in emergency departments at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.

This descriptive-analytical study was performed in 224 nurses in Mazandaran province in 2019. The samples were selected via census. Workplace violence in the health sector questionnaire and Burton G. E questionnaire were used to evaluate nurse’s communication skills, respectively. Data were analyzed in SPSS V25.

Verbal violence was the most frequent form of violence against nurses (85.3%) and patients were the main source of violence. In this study, the mean score for nurses’ communication skills was 58.13 that indicated moderate levels of communication skills. The study showed no significant relationship between nurses’ communication skills and the incidence of violence (P=0.85).

Although there was no significant relationship between emergency nurses’ communication skills and incidence of violence against them, enhancing their communication skills should be considered by managers.