Objectives:This study aimed to explore the reporting of workplace violence against nurses and the reasons why they did not reported.Methods:A self-designed questionnaire regarding workplace violence and reporting was used to conduct a cross-sectional survey on nurses who submitted a manuscript to a Chinese nursing journal from 2016 to 2017.A total of 324 nurses agreed to participate in this study and 266 participants from 165 hospitals in 72 cities returned questionnaires.Results:A total of 172 nurses(64.7%)experienced violent incidents during the past year.Of these in-cidents,45.5%were reported;and the reporting rate of physical assaults(69.0%)was higher than those of verbal abuse(36.9%),threatening behavior(51.7%),and sexual harassment(60.0%).Formal reporting accounted for 25.4%(15.4%in written form and 10.0%through a computer-assisted reporting system).Almost half of the nurses(49.6%)stated that the hospital had no reporting system or they were uncertain about the reporting system.For reasons of not reporting,51.9%of the nurses were unware of how and what types of violence to report,and 50.6%of the nurses believed that the hospital paid greater attention to patients rather than staff.Conclusions:A clear definition of workplace violence and reporting procedures,establishment of a facile system for reporting,and supervisory support following a reporting are urgently required.