This was justified on the principle that to practise nursing was to accept the risk of personal violence. Nurses themselves often feel that they are legitimate targets and that violence is part of the job . Ninety-five percent of nurses around the world are women. Attitudes towards women are often reflected in interactions with the profession. Health care workers are more likely to be attacked at work than prison guards or police officers.
Nurses are the health care workers most at risk, with female nurses considered the most vulnerable.
General patient rooms have replaced psychiatric units at the second most frequent area for assaults. Physical assault is almost exclusively perpetrated by patients. In the US, a woman is beaten every 18 minutes and every six minutes a woman is raped. Between 22 and 35 per cent of women who visit emergency rooms are there as a result of domestic violence 3 . In the 400 cases of domestic violence reported in 1993 in the province of Punjab, nearly half ended with the death of the wife 5 .