PROFESSIONAL NURSES’ KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF AGGRESSIVE PATIENTS IN A PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL IN THE WESTERN CAPE

Aggression and violence by patients towards psychiatric nurses is a global issue. Nurses spend most of the time with these psychiatric patients, which make them more vulnerable to any form of injuries during the process of managing aggressive patients without having knowledge and skills.A quantitative approach, descriptive design was used to determine the knowledge and skills of professional nurses in managing aggression of psychiatric patients. The study was conducted in a psychiatric hospital in the Western Cape. The target population consisted of 119 professional nurses working in the psychiatric hospital. An all-inclusive sample of professional nurses was selected to complete a self-developed structured questionnaire. The overall Cronbach’s Alpha for the instrument was 0,721. A total of 70 questionnaires were handed out yielding a return of 52 completed questionnaires. Response rate of 74%. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 22 from which descriptive data was obtained.Findings suggest that nurses are likely to be exposed to verbal aggression as opposed to sexual aggression. Nurses with less years of experience had more knowledge than experienced nurses. Nurses who had training in aggression management reported that it did not meet their needs. Overall, the findings revealed that nurses have fair knowledge about management of aggressive psychiatric patientsThere is a need for on-going in-service training and refresher courses in the management of aggression. There should be a needs analysis prior to the commencement of the training. Training attendance should be compulsory