Health personnel, especially nurses, are often victims of workplace violence. Unfortunately, little is known about the nurses' experience of violence. A research study was initiated to further explore the nurses' accounts of workplace violence so as to make dimensions of the nurses' experience visible and more fully understood. Interpretive description was the research methodology adopted for this study. Using theoretical sampling, ten Registered Nurses from the lower mainland and Vancouver Island, British Columbia participated in semi structured, audiotaped interviews. In this research, the nurses' experience of workplace violence emerged as a highly complex entity, deeply embedded in relationships and context. How nurses perceive the contextual factors of the organization, their immediate work environment and their individual attributes were found to play a significant role in how they respond to the phenomenon. The findings of this study suggest that organizational culture is an important determinant in managing workplace violence and that policy and administrative personnel play a pivotal role in influencing the problem. Nursing culture also influences the nurses' expectations, assumptions and actions towards violence. Participants voiced that role conflict often challenged their ability to enact acquired professional ideals and that that they routinely undertake roles in dealing with violence that are not appropriate to their level of knowledge or skill. Within the nurses' immediate work environment, bullying as well as physical and verbal abuse was commonplace. Overcrowding, long waits for service, poor environmental design and inadequate staff to patient ratios were seen as factors that increased nurses' risk. Individual factors were associated with emotional and psychological harms that nurses endured. Workplace violence affected self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy and the nurses' sense of control. Moral distress, self-blame, feelings of failure, loss of motivation and leaving the nursing profession were significant findings. The results of this study demonstrate a need to re-think how we can address workplace violence in nursing. Research and intervention is needed to further explore organizational policy and governing structures, the culture and climate of practice environments, and the fundamental role nursing education programs have in preparing nurses to manage workplace violence.

Health personnel, especially nurses, are often victims of workplace violence. Unfortunately, little is known about the nurses' experience of violence. A research study was initiated to further explore the nurses' accounts of workplace violence so as to make dimensions of the nurses' experience visible and more fully understood. Interpretive description was the research methodology adopted for this study. Using theoretical sampling, ten Registered Nurses from the lower mainland and Vancouver Island, British Columbia participated in semi structured, audiotaped interviews. In this research, the nurses' experience of workplace violence emerged as a highly complex entity, deeply embedded in relationships and context. How nurses perceive the contextual factors of the organization, their immediate work environment and their individual attributes were found to play a significant role in how they respond to the phenomenon. The findings of this study suggest that organizational culture is an important determinant in managing workplace violence and that policy and administrative personnel play a pivotal role in influencing the problem. Nursing culture also influences the nurses' expectations, assumptions and actions towards violence. Participants voiced that role conflict often challenged their ability to enact acquired professional ideals and that that they routinely undertake roles in dealing with violence that are not appropriate to their level of knowledge or skill. Within the nurses' immediate work environment, bullying as well as physical and verbal abuse was commonplace. Overcrowding, long waits for service, poor environmental design and inadequate staff to patient ratios were seen as factors that increased nurses' risk. Individual factors were associated with emotional and psychological harms that nurses endured. Workplace violence affected self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy and the nurses' sense of control. Moral distress, self-blame, feelings of failure, loss of motivation and leaving the nursing profession were significant findings. The results of this study demonstrate a need to re-think how we can address workplace violence in nursing. Research and intervention is needed to further explore organizational policy and governing structures, the culture and climate of practice environments, and the fundamental role nursing education programs have in preparing nurses to manage workplace violence.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 186 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-181).

Health personnel, especially nurses, are often victims of workplace violence. Unfortunately, little is known about the nurses' experience of violence. A research study was initiated to further explore the nurses' accounts of workplace violence so as to make dimensions of the nurses' experience visible and more fully understood. Interpretive description was the research methodology adopted for this study. Using theoretical sampling, ten Registered Nurses from the lower mainland and Vancouver Island, British Columbia participated in semi structured, audiotaped interviews. In this research, the nurses' experience of workplace violence emerged as a highly complex entity, deeply embedded in relationships and context. How nurses perceive the contextual factors of the organization, their immediate work environment and their individual attributes were found to play a significant role in how they respond to the phenomenon. The findings of this study suggest that organizational culture is an important determinant in managing workplace violence and that policy and administrative personnel play a pivotal role in influencing the problem. Nursing culture also influences the nurses' expectations, assumptions and actions towards violence. Participants voiced that role conflict often challenged their ability to enact acquired professional ideals and that that they routinely undertake roles in dealing with violence that are not appropriate to their level of knowledge or skill. Within the nurses' immediate work environment, bullying as well as physical and verbal abuse was commonplace. Overcrowding, long waits for service, poor environmental design and inadequate staff to patient ratios were seen as factors that increased nurses' risk. Individual factors were associated with emotional and psychological harms that nurses endured. Workplace violence affected self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy and the nurses' sense of control. Moral distress, self-blame, feelings of failure, loss of motivation and leaving the nursing profession were significant findings. The results of this study demonstrate a need to re-think how we can address workplace violence in nursing. Research and intervention is needed to further explore organizational policy and governing structures, the culture and climate of practice environments, and the fundamental role nursing education programs have in preparing nurses to manage workplace violence. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate

Workplace violence against nurses causes stress, job dissatisfaction, injury, and financial burden. The purpose of this project was to examine training for nurses on violence, risk factors and on reporting workplace violence. The practice-focused question was designed to examine the effectiveness of educating nurses regarding violent patients and how to report episodes of violence. Benner's novice to expert theory guided the skill acquisition training of a convenience sample of 25 Midwestern medical nurses. The nurses participated by completing a survey prior to and following a violence simulation. A qualitative design was used with the 25 nurse participants who completed the pre-and post-simulation education surveys to assess for increased knowledge. Data were manually tabulated by coding responses into categories. Categorical themes of risk factors related to violence included environment, behavior, and illness-related; and themes related to interventions to prevent violence included awareness, education, communication, de-escalation, and calming. Overall results indicated that nurses saw the importance of reporting all injuries and violence to supervisors. The project makes a meaningful contribution to nursing practice by informing nurses how to report violence and injury from violence, and by informing administrators of the need for education in the recognition of risk factors for violence. The positive social change impact of this study for nurses is increased awareness that violence is not acceptable, and that a healthy work environment benefits nurses and promotes a safer healthcare work environment for patients and visitors to the healthcare setting.

The literature claims that workplace violence (WPV) in the health care setting is among the highest, with the majority of that violence taking place in the Emergency Department (ED). The significance of WPV in reference to nursing is that it leads to burnout, absenteeism, and the risk of nurses leaving their job all together. Leaving the nursing profession intensifies the present critical shortage. With the success of an evidence-based WPV prevention program (WPVPP), hospitals could improve the quality of work for nurses, which consequently will improve retention rates, as well as provide an environment that will be more conducive to patient care. In the evaluation of the ED at the practicum site, it was found that there was an absence regarding de-escalation education, hazard assessment, and incident reporting. To address those problems, the current project examined the extent to which implementing a WPVPP would provide a safer environment as perceived by the nurses who work in the ED. Ten health care professionals with experience and knowledge related to WPV were given an evaluation tool to measure the content validity of the survey instrument and WPVPP. The evaluation tool was comprised of 12 close- and open-ended questions. The information gained from the evaluation provided the necessary support to implement the WPVPP and evaluate the nurses' perception of safety in the ED. The implementation of a WPVPP would affect social change by improving the nurses' perception of safety, hence creating a healthy work environment that includes safety, respect, and trust.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of hospital workplace violence on nursing personnel currently employed in a specific context (an operating theatre) in a private hospital in the Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA). Methodology: The broad paradigm of this research study is located in the qualitative research field. The researcher specifically used an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) following the guidelines of Smith, Jarman and Osborne (1999). IPA was used because the researcher was interested in identifying, describing and understanding the subjective experience of individual nurses in respect of their cognitive interpretations and subjective experiences of nursing workplace violence; and because the researcher intended to make sense of the participants' world through a process of interpretative activity. A focus group and two thematically semi-structured interviews were conducted with each subsequent participant by the researcher. A total of eight participants took part in the study, five were interviewed separately and eleven interviews were done. The IPA as suggested by Smith et al. (1999) was used to identify the connections and themes in respect of shared meanings and references and /or in respect of hierarchical relationships in each transcript. Themes that were found to be common were grouped together i.e. clustered by the researcher. The researcher then derived a master list of superordinate themes and sub-themes from the clusters of themes. Findings: The participants' lived experiences of workplace violence in the operating theatre indicated that workplace violence had impacted and was impacting on their everyday work experience. A range of workplace violence experiences as precipitated and perpetuated by doctors, fellow nurses and hospital management was noted. These included verbal abuse, bullying, intimidation, process violence, physical assault and sexual harassment. Differences between the types of workplace violence perpetrated by doctors, nurses and hospital management were found. The participants articulated a range of subjective meanings and explanations for their colleagues' behaviours (intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional) - all of which were found to have impacted on their psychological wellbeing. A variety of defense mechanisms and coping strategies were identified and discussed. Conclusion: Following McKoy and Smith (2001), the researcher identified a number of factors that made the nursing workplace and/or the healthcare environment more susceptible to the occurrence of workplace violence, e.g. low staffing, a reduction in trained staff, and the profit-motives of private hospitals in the healthcare industry (managed healthcare). These were found to have impacted on each of the participants in this study in respect of their experiences of workplace violence. In sum, the study has provided a clear, department specific picture about the experiences of theatre nurses in respect of workplace violence. A number of interventions to facilitate and retain the services of theatre nurses in the operating theatre have been suggested. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Stephen McDowell, Florida State University, College of Communication, Dept. of Communication. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 23, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Magister Legum - LLM

Background: Studies have shown that healthcare workers in Emergency Units (EUs) are at a high risk of both physical and non-physical workplace violence. While several international studies have focused on the experience of workplace violence by Emergency Medicine (EM) specialist physicians, there is a paucity of data regarding that of EM physicians in training. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the amount of workplace violence (and the subtypes thereof) perpetrated against Western Cape EM registrars and consultants, and their perceived level of, and identified barriers to and facilitators of, job safety and satisfaction. Methods: This cross-sectional study relied upon responses to a survey, electronically disseminated over a 6-week period, in May/June 2018, amongst Western Cape public sector EM registrars and consultants. The primary outcome was the incidence of workplace violence experienced. The secondary outcomes were the sub-types of workplace violence perpetrated, as well as the perceived level of job safety and satisfaction, and identified barriers thereto and facilitators thereof. Results: In total, 66% of respondents had experienced at least one act of physical violence while working in Western Cape EUs, specifically by patients. Regarding non-physical violence, 90.6% of respondents had experienced at least one act of verbal harassment, 84.9% of verbal threat, and 45.3% of sexual harassment. The rates of both physical and non-physical workplace violence (especially sexual harassment), perpetrated by patients specifically, were found to be higher in female than in male respondents. Apart from acts of verbal harassment, which were perpetrated equally by patients and visitors, all other acts of physical and nonphysical workplace violence were perpetrated at a higher rate by patients than visitors. The rates of both physical and non-physical workplace violence, perpetrated by patients specifically, were found to be higher in EM consultants than in EM registrars. The factors most commonly indicated by respondents as contributory to workplace violence were patient and/or visitor alcohol use, drug use and psychiatric illness. Other factors commonly indicated were long waiting times and unmet expectations, and resultant patient and/or visitor frustration. Conclusion: Workplace violence against EM registrars and consultants is a significant problem in Western Cape EUs. The information gained during this study will be useful in improving safety and security policies at an EU (and hospital) level. It may even be applicable at a provincial (or national) level in changing legislation, in order to reduce, and ultimately prevent, workplace violence in the EU.