Aggressive behavior is a critical issue for psychiatric services, because of the adverse impact on patients and staff, and management of this behavior is difficult. This study was done by aim of determination of nurses’ problem in management of aggressive behavior in psychiatric wards.

This descriptive analytic study was done in 41 nurses who worked in Hajar and Sina Psychiatric ward in 2011. Sampling method was census. Data was gathered by self-making questionnaire include two parts: nurses’ demographic data and aggression management problem in three domains: personal, physical, and organizational factors. Data was analyzed by SPSS software 18, and means and frequency and analytical statistic exams such as Mann-Whitney and chi square were used.

The average of aggression episode was 4.44±3.3 time and in 51.25% occurred in all work shifts. 82.9% of aggression episode was mix verbal and physical aggression. The most aggressive patients suffer from schizophrenia and they had 30 till 40 years old. The most frequent problem in management of aggressive patients was related to personal problem specially fear about physical conflict with patients and physical restriction side effects. There was no significant relationship between age, sex, work shift and ward with aggression frequency (P>0.05),but there was significant difference between two hospital in physical environment (P= 0.003) and personal problems (P=0.011).

Results of this study revealed that nurses who work in psychiatry ward have some problem in management of aggressive patient's especially in personal and physical environment domain, and attention of managers is necessary.