AbstractBackground and AimER nurses are at risk of violence due to the nature of their job and confrontation with a variety ofpatients as well as heavy workload. This can, in turn, leads to decreased quality of care. Thisdescriptive study was conducted to identify prevalence and causes of violence toward nurses at ERsof hospitals affiliated with Medical Universities in Tehran.Methods100 nurses with at least 1 year continuous experience at ER were included in the study. Data werecollected by a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained items including demographics, frequencyand characteristics of violence at work (physical, verbal, nonverbal) and the factors involved.Content and test-retest as well as internal consistency (Cronbach’sU) methods were used forValidity and reliability of the questionnaire respectively. Data were analyzed by version 16 of SPSSpackage.FindingsThe most frequent type of violence was verbal (87%). The frequencies of nonverbal and physicalviolence were 70% and 28% respectively. The most common type of verbal violence was yelling(84%) and, in physical violence, it was throwing objects (33%). In nonverbal violence, insulting andthreatening look (64%) and hitting on the table were very common. Verbal (48.2%) and nonverbal(65.8%) violence was committed mostly over the past month of the study and at nights. The subjects(38%) experienced verbal violence up to 5 times. The most frequent cause of violence (77%) wasthe lack of control over entrance of patients’ relatives. chi test showed a significant relationshipbetween physical violence and night shifts (P<0.001) and between female sex of nurses and physicalviolence (P<0.005).ConclusionER nurses usually face with violence in a week and the most frequent types are verbal, nonverbaland physical, leading to decreased speed in delivering efficient care to patients and decreasedquality of health care resulted from it.Keywords: Violence, Nurse, Emergency rooms (ERs).Corresponding Author: Moshtagh Eshgh Z, Faculty Lecturer, Department of Nursing, Faculty ofNursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranEmail: [email protected] SM et al (2002). Violence against nurses in health care facilities in Kuwait. International Journal of NursingStudies. 39 (4) 469-478-Astrom S et al (2004). Staff’s experience of and the management of violent incidents in elderly care. 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