Potential for violence toward psychiatric nursing students: risk reduction techniques.

1. Nursing students could be vulnerable targets of violence in their psychiatric nursing clinical rotations by virtue of their predominant gender, and meek, insecure attitudes. 2. Nurses are taught to put the patients' needs first and students may blame themselves or minimize situations where they have been threatened or assaulted by a patient. Priority consideration must also be given to our own safety and that of our students, given the risk for occupational injury in the nursing workplace. 3. Affiliating agencies may restrict disabled students from patient care areas. Allowing a disabled student to participate in a clinical rotation on a psychiatric unit could put staff at unnecessary risk of violence if called on to protect the vulnerable student.