Coping strategies for nurses working with violent mental health care users (MHCUs)

A qualitative-explorative-descriptive and contextual research design was used to conduct the study. 11 individual face to face semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from the professional nurses and enrolled nursing assistants in two public mental health care institutions. Non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to select participants for the study. Digital audio recorder was used to record and later transcribed into texts. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data and 4 themes and sub-themes emerged from the data. Ethics clearance was obtained from the University of Pretoria (Reference Number: 80/2023) and also obtained consent to collect data from the two public mental health care institutions.

The files entails 11 individual interviews and four themes emerged and are as follow:-

1. Factors contributing to violence and aggression of MHCUs

1. Negative experiences of caring for MHCUs with violence and aggression
2. Different coping strategies when caring for MHCUs with violence and aggression
3. Suggestions to assist nurses caring for MHCUs with violence and aggression