effect of assertiveness training on adaptive and aggressive assertiveness in nurses

background: assertiveness is one of the most important skills needed by nurses to reduce interpersonal conflict and build an effective teamwork in complex hospital environments. objective: the aim of this study was to determine the effect of an assertiveness training program on nurses aggressive and adaptive assertiveness. methods: in this interventional study, participants were 64 nurses working in hospitals of abhar city in iran, randomly divided into two groups of intervention (n=32) and control (n=32). assertive training program was presented as a two-day training workshop (10 hours) to the intervention group, while the control group received no training. thompson and burnham rsquo;s adaptive and aggressive assertiveness scale were completed by the participants in both groups at baseline, immediately, one and three months after the intervention. after collecting the data, friedman, mann -whitney, chisquared, and fisher tests were used for their analysis. findings: the mean of adaptive assertiveness score was significantly different between the the two groups immediately (p=0.002) and 1 month after the intervention (p=0.025). the aggressive assertiveness scores were not significantly different immediately, 1 and 3 months after the intervention (p 0.05), but the results of friedman test showed a statistically significant decrease in the aggressive assertiveness scores compared to its baseline score (p=0.002). conclusion: the assertiveness training program increased adaptive assertiveness and decreased aggressive assertiveness in nurses. relevant authorities can design continuous and useful assertiveness training programs to promot this valuable skill in nurses.