Violence suffered by nursing professionals in the workplace

Abstract

Objective: Knowing the violence suffered by nursing professionals. Methods: An integrative literature review study was carried out, the search bases were the Virtual Health Library (VHL), Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), were nursing professional descriptors, workplace violence and exposure to violence with the help of the Boolean operator “and” were used. Results: There are numerous types of violence that nursing professionals are exposed to, including verbal and physical violence, psychological, institutional, individual and collective harassment. The main actors in violent acts are patients, patients' families and co-workers. Final considerations: Based on the results, it is evident that nursing professionals are exposed to various types of violence in the workplace, whether in the hospital setting or in primary health care. There is an urgent need for public policies that guarantee protection for nursing professionals.