Impact of anger management training on controlling perceived violence and aggression of nurses in emergency departments

Context: The evidence suggests that the communication skills of the emergency department personnel are not optimal, and the employees are not prepared to deal with the violent behaviors of patients and their relatives. 

Aims: This study aimed to determine the effect of anger management training on controlling the perceived violence and aggression of nurses in emergency departments. 

Setting and Design: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 112 nurses in emergency departments of educational healthcare centers of Gorgan, Iran, in 2017. 

Materials and Methods: Nurses were randomly divided into test and control group. In the test group, training of anger management skills was carried out in person, followed by 2-month virtual training, including short messages related to the skill of anger management delivered via Telegram. No specific measure was obtained in the control group. The subjects filled out an anger management skill questionnaire before and after the intervention. 

Statistical Analysis: Data were analyzed using paired t-test, Wilcoxon test, and Mann–Whitney U-test with P < 0.05. 

Results: The mean ages of the subjects in the test and control groups were 30.25 ± 3.02 and 28.58 ± 4.16 years, respectively. The comparison of exposure level to verbal violence in the control group was low in the beginning of the study, which had a significant increase at the end of the investigation (P = 0.001). There was a significant difference between the level of exposure to physical violence in the test group before and after the intervention (P = 0.007), whereas no change was observed in the control group (P = 0.91). Only in the test group, there was a reduction in the level of exposure to sexual anger, and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.006). 

Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, running workshops and following the trainings via the internet reduced the score of exposure to physical and sexual aggression in nurses.