Consequences and Control Measures of Workplace Violence among Nurses

Background: The exposure to violence at workplace can result in post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, anger, anxiety, shame, guilt, and self-blame among nurses. Workplace violence is associated with nurse absenteeism, medical errors, decreased job satisfaction and burnout. Aim: To examine the workplace violence, its negative consequences and the measures used to control it among nurses. Methods: A descriptive research design using selfadministered questionnaire was employed. A convenient sample of 107 nurses from three hospitals completed the study. In order to assess negative consequences of violence at workplace and measures used to control it, an instrument was adopted for the purpose of this study. Results: About half of the participants were subjected to workplace violence in the last 12 months. About 39% of the participants reported that no action was taken to investigate the causes of violence. In addition, the most frequently reported consequence of violence was "verbal warring". Overall, most of the participants were not satisfied in the way in which the violence was handled. Only thirty percent of the participants who witnessed incident of violence in workplace reported it. The most commonly reason for not reporting violence is because it is "useless" which was reported by 26.2% of the participants. The most frequently reported measure performed to decrease the violence incidences was increasing staff number. Conclusion: Policy makers should develop specific policies to report violent incidences. Using specific security measures to decrease the violent incidences is also highly recommended.