Nurses' reactions to physical assault by their patients.

Using the Assault Response Questionnaire (Lanza, 1988a), the emotional, biophysiological, and social reactions of 35 female non-psychiatric nurses who had been assaulted by their patients were investigated. These nurses were also asked to describe their assault experience, and to identify causes, their coping strategies, and the barriers preventing them from reporting assault. Results showed that as nurses reported more assaults, they experienced more intense emotional, biophysiological, and social reactions. They coped by learning to change their behaviours and they most often cited patient variables as causes for the assault--a finding that runs contrary to the pattern of self-blame reported in earlier studies.