[Occupational violence experienced by nursing staff in hospital emergency service]

This research objectives were: to discover the sociodemographic profile of the nursing staff that works in the hospital emergency service, identify the main types of occupational violence suffered by this team. Cross-sectional descriptive study done in a general hospital in Duque de Cazxias/Rio de Janeiro. The data, collected on August, 2009, was put in tables for subsequent univariate analysis. The sample of respondents comprised 30 workers. The analyzed data showed that the majority of employees interviewed were victims of occupational violence (76.7%). The main causes of occupational violence were the companions (87.0%) followed by patients (52.2%). The more frequentform of aggression was verbal aggression (100.0%). The results showed that these workers have little expectation on changing the current situation and do not believe that their managers can assist them in the problem.