Sexual harassment of nurses by patients and missed nursing care-A hidden population study

Aim: To raise awareness of a patient-related antecedent of missed nursing care.

Background: Missed nursing care is negatively associated with patient outcomes; accordingly, hospitals employ strategies to mitigate missed care. While antecedents of missed nursing care resulting from the work environment of nurses are recognized, sexual harassment by patients is not.

Methods: This study is a hidden population study using respondent-driven sampling. We analysed data from thirty letters of frontline nurses from a tertiary Israeli hospital using the six steps of Aronson's thematic analysis.

Findings: Six themes emerged. Nurses (a) felt objectified and that the sacred nurse-patient therapeutic space was desecrated; (b) felt a lack of support from ward managers; (c) felt unprotected, lonely, and alienated; (d) did not share the experience with managers; (e) coped with sexual harassment by ending treatment quickly and later realized they missed some tasks; and (f) considered leaving nursing.

Conclusion (s): Policymakers are called upon to adopt the eight steps suggested for effectively coping with sexual harassment by patients and thus to reduce missed nursing care.

Implications for nursing management: Managers are called upon to modify their management style and to provide support to nurses who experience sexual harassment in order to alleviate their stress, which is an also antecedent of missed nursing care.