Nursing aides and patient violence

The authors studied the incidence of violence in a psychiatric unit organized as a therapeutic community whose nursing staff was composed entirely of women in comparison with another unit staffed according to the traditional male and female nursing pattern. The unit staffed by women had no incidents of other-directed violence in the one-year period of the study, but the traditionally staffed unit had 13 violent incidents initiated by 5 patients. The authors state that the expectation of violence among psychiatric patients and the consequent use of male nursing aides to control violence may represent a self-fulfilling prophecy.