Thousands of nurses are attacked each year
However, less than one in 20 say they have received support from the NHS in pressing charges against their attackers.
The survey, carried out by the Nursing Times, also shows that just one in 10 were offered counselling after the incident.
Most of the 1,500 nurses who responded to the survey blamed the rise in violence on a corresponding increase in alcohol consumption, particularly in young people.
Angry
Many said they felt angry and left down by the NHS.
One trust surveyed by the magazine could not cite a single case in which action had been taken against an attacker, even though it had recorded more than 400 violent incidents against staff over the past year.
Ministers have urged NHS trusts to get tough on violent patients.
Department of Health figures suggest there are 65,000 violent incidents against hospital staff each year - two out of three of these involve nursing staff.
Under guidelines introduced last year, trust managers have the right to withhold treatment "as a last resort" if staff are threatened, unless the condition is life threatening.
Action demanded
Nursing Times deputy editor Alison Whyte called on the NHS to get tough with offenders.
"We are not saying that the majority of the general public are violent towards nurses at all, but a significant minority are," she said.
"But any example of violence towards nurses and other health staff is unacceptable.
"Nursing Times is calling on employers to call the police after a nurse is assaulted to make an official record of the offence and the trusts to prosecute the offenders.
"The violence has got to stop."
The magazine called on trusts to either press charges against those who attack nurses or support nurses who wish to press charges themselves.
It also called for effective training for staff in managing and de-escalating violence in order to reduce the number of violent incidents.