This study aimed to understand the nature and frequency of violence and verbal abuse toward nurses ina Japanese general hospital. Questionnaires concerning violence and verbal abuse against nurses were distributedto 440 nurses employed at a university hospital and a total of 438 nurses responded to the questionnaire.Over one third reported attempted incidents of violence, whereas further one quarter reported beingactually pinched, touched unnecessarily, or kicked. More than a half reported being yelled at, being complainedto unreasonably about a medical service, and experiencing overbearing voices. The most commonemotion experienced after facing violence or verbal abuse was embarrassment and discomfort, followed byanger. Nurses in the emergency and intensive care units and some surgical wards experienced higher levelsof violence and verbal abuse than those in other wards. These findings prove the urgent need for the developmentof preventive actions to address the problem of workplace adversity
