Workplace violence against nurses and its effect on their job satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Workplace violence is a serious phenomenon involving the health care settings, and presents challenges to management. Literatures indicate that the majority of nurses experience some form of violence during their working lives. Managing workplace violence presents a problem stem from lack of consistency among those perceiving and defining it. The consequences can be devastating, since it affects nurses' morale, decreases job satisfaction and altered job performance. The present multidisciplinary study aims at investigating the phenomenon of workplace violence among nurses and its association to their job satisfaction. The main results are that about three quarters of the involved subjects experienced violence in the workplace. Verbal abuse and psychological/emotional stressing act are highly perceived by the subjects to define violence, and that the last one is the most frequent type experienced by nurses. Clients and their relatives, as well as the administrative staff are the most significant perpetrators, and that the most precipitating factors are violating privacy, inadequacy of available nurses, equipment supplies, and treatments, as well as visits from outside the hospital. Nurses who experienced workplace violence reported their dissatisfaction, about half of them not preferring their work, and have tendency to leave due to violence, and as a result, more than quarter are searching for a career rather than nursing