Internationally violence persists as a complex problem for nurses. While it is widely accepted that nursing staff in any health care setting can be the target of violence, in high acuity areas such as Emergency Departments (ED) nurses have an increased risk of violence. There is limited Australian research into violence experienced by nurses in the Australian Health sector, in particular the rural and regional Australian ED. Greater understanding of the phenomena of violence towards ED nurses, as it is manifest in the ‘real world’ rural and regional Australian setting is needed to enable development of context specific solutions for this problem. This thesis presents a contextual, specialty nurses’ assessment of violence risk, strategies for violence prediction and management, and the sequelae for the nurse. The aims of this study were to: Explore and describe the contextual assessment skills and preventative strategies rural and regional ED nurses use to understand and predict violent events, where the agent of violence is the patient, their family or friends, and understand the nature and scope of the sequelae of work place violent events from the nurse’s perspective. A mixed method instrumental case study was used to generate both qualitative and boundary for inquiry, and a structured process within which the chosen methods were able to define ‘the case’ and answer the research question. This study was undertaken in 2005, at a regional Australian ED. Twenty (20) Registered Nurses were recruited into the study and consented to being observed. Textual qualitative data were generated from two hundred and ninety (290) hours of participant observation, sixteen (16) semi-structured interviews, thirteen (13) unstructured field interviews, and researcher journaling. In addition, sixteen (16) violent events were observed and recorded via a structured observation tool. Textual data were analysed thematically assisted by the qualitative data management and retrieval software NVivo2, and numeric data were analysed using frequency counts. The participants used their nursing knowledge(s), experience and context to assess their risk of violence. Embedded in the practice of these ED nurses was their ability to convey caring and respectfully approach all people presenting to ED. The participants’ caring respectful demeanour underpinned their understanding of violence prevention strategies. Using this violence prevention approach, they attributed contextual meaning(s) to the violent event and agent of violence. The meaning(s) they attributed in turn shaped their response(s) to both the violent event and the agent of violence. A high level of observable collegial awareness supported and fostered their resilience towards the potentially negative affects of violence in the workplace. The five themes revealed by this study were; Conveying caring: Averting violence: Being alert: Recognising, assessing and responding to violence: Attributing meaning: Subjective understandings that shape responses to Violence : Collegial awareness: Forming trusting relationships to help manage violence: Fostering resilience: resisting the negative sequelae of violence. Violence was interpreted by these ED nurses in a more systematic and complex way than the current definitions make possible. Violence assessment, prevention and management skills were embodied in the participant ED nurses’ routine practice and their conceptualisation of caring. The meanings given to violence were contextually constructed and these ascribed meaning(s) and judgments informed the actions that the nurses took in response to both the violent event and the agent of violence. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M.A.)--Northern Kentucky University, 2008. / Made available through ProQuest. Publication number: AAT 1459943. ProQuest document ID: 1622191091. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-31)

Thesis (M.A.)--Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, 1997. / "May 1997." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-94). Available also on the Internet.

Attrition is a serious issue in the nursing industry. One factor influencing rates of attrition in nursing is aggression victimization at work (Estryn-Behar et al., 2010). However, there is little research in the aggression literature that examines how aggression from different sources affects attrition (both job and career turnover) differently. This study attempts to better understand the linkages between aggression victimization and nursing attrition; specifically how aggression from different sources (i.e. patients/patients’ families, coworkers, and licensed independent practitioners) differentially affects retention factors (i.e. job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and career commitment). This study also attempts to understand the role that prosocial motivation may have in buffering against negative work attitudes brought about by patient aggression victimization. A two time point cross-sectional survey design was conducted in a hospital organization in the state of Oregon. The data presented here are part of an archival examination of that larger dataset that uses 337 voluntary nursing participants. Findings partially support the idea that different sources of aggression differentially affect retention outcomes like job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and career commitment. Some limitations and contributions of the study are also discussed.

Research has established that workplace aggression leads to a multitude of negative outcomes for individuals and organizations. This study aimed to determine if certain coping strategies could assuage the negative impact of workplace aggression on two outcomes: job satisfaction and psychological well-being. A study of nurses explored their experiences with being the target of verbal, passive, and physical workplace aggression, their job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and their coping strategies. Results indicate that coping style does indeed moderate the relationship between being the target of workplace aggression and negative outcomes. Implications for the workplace are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of violence exhibited by clients towards Youth Protection workers. The sample consisted of 59 Youth Protection employees of Batshaw Youth and Family Centres who were given a questionnaire related to their experience with client initiated violence. The study attempted to identify several factors such as whether violence was an important issue for workers; whether there was a relationship between gender, job status or work experience and violence; whether training and policy adequately meet the needs of workers. The thesis concludes with recommendations to the agency on how to better deal with the violence issue and suggestions for future exploration in research, policy development, training and education.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1994. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2947. Abstract precedes thesis as [3] preliminary leaves. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-135).

Violence at work is a growing problem for organizations. It involves significant costs for the organization, its members and the community. In its various dimensions, organized violence is one of the least investigated. This study provides evidence of the relevance of this dimension has on the development of violent behavior in the workplace. The results indicate that practices an organization implements an impact on levels of violence that occur at work. For the development of healthy organizations, free of violence, the company management must take a holistic approach and look at best practices related to human resource management, with leadership factors or job design / La violencia en el trabajo es un problema creciente para las organizaciones pues conlleva importantes costes para la propia organización, sus miembros, y la comunidad. De sus diferentes dimensiones, la violencia organizativa es una de las menos investigadas. El presente estudio aporta evidencia sobre la relevancia que dicha dimensión tiene en el desarrollo de las conductas violentas en el trabajo. Los resultados obtenidos indican que las prácticas que implementa una organización inciden sobre los niveles de violencia que se dan en el trabajo. Para el desarrollo de organizaciones saludables, libres de violencia, la dirección de la empresa ha de adoptar un enfoque holístico y contemplar prácticas más relacionadas con la gestión de recursos humanos, que con factores de liderazgo o de diseño de puestos.

Magister Curationis / Violence in society has reached epidemic level and has permeated the walls of the workplace. Workplace violence has also spread across all occupations, especially those dealing with the public, and has escalated over the years. In this thesis the researcher explored the experiences, perceptions and coping mechanisms used by nurses exposed to violence in the health setting. The main focus was to determine how the nurses interpret abuse, and does this interpretation determine their response to the abuse. / South Africa

Workplace violence is an international problem and has negative consequences for individuals, organizations and communities. For individuals, the effect includes symptoms of fear, stress, irritability, feelings of isolation, insecurity, and low selfesteem. Healthcare organizations incur increased cost due to litigation due to poor quality of care, high staff turnovers and absenteeism, and their brands are negatively affected. Community members, who are the recipients of care, are placed in danger and are indirectly the victims of such workplace violence, which in turn affects their trust in private healthcare organizations or professions to provide the quality health care that they expect and deserve. Workplace violence takes many forms such as incivility, horizontal violence and bullying to name but a few. The perpetrators of such violence are doctors, nurses, patients and relatives. Workplace violence takes place in South Africa however, paucity in research was found by the researcher. The aim of the study was to explore and describe the experiences of professional nurses regarding workplace violence in a private healthcare facility in order to develop guidelines to address workplace violence in such a facility. A qualitative, explorative, contextual and descriptive study was conducted, using the Critical Social Theory as the paradigm. Data were gathered from professional nurses that have experienced workplace violence utilizing narratives. Fourteen narrative interviews were done until data was saturated. The data was transcribed verbatim and Tesch’s method of thematic synthesis was used to analyse the data. The three themes that emerged from the data were: Professional nurses acknowledge the existence of workplace violence where they work, Participants described the effect of workplace violence on themselves, others and the work environment, and Participants discussed their views regarding management of violence in the workplace. A thick description of the data with a literature control was provided. Thereafter inferences were made regarding the main themes of the guidelines and these focussed on: Preventing and addressing workplace violence by Nursing Service Managers; Preventing and addressing workplace violence by Nurse Unit Managers and Empowering professional nurses to address workplace violence. To ensure rigour and trustworthiness of the study, the researcher used Lincoln and Guba’s criteria namely: credibility, dependability, conformability and transferability. To protect the right and dignity of the participants and to safeguard the integrity of the study the researcher complied with the following ethical principles: beneficence, non- maleficence, autonomy, justice, veracity, privacy, and confidentiality. The limitations of this study were that data was collected from only one category of nurses and only one private healthcare facility was used. Recommendations from this study include implementation of the guidelines to establish their effectiveness. The findings of this study can be used to empower professional nurses to deal with workplace violence and to prevent the short and long term effects of workplace violence on the individual, the organization and the community. Nursing education institutions can also incorporate workplace violence into their curriculum to increase the awareness of students regarding this phenomenon.