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Psychosocial working conditions and violence prevention climate in German emergency departments – a cross-sectional study

Sonja Reißmann, Mannat Guliani, Tanja Wirth, D. Groneberg, V. Harth, Stefanie Mache

BMC Emergency Medicine, 2025

370 participants · 4 citations

Abstract

Emergency departments (EDs) are high pressure work environments with several psychosocial job demands, e.g., violence, and job resources, e.g., colleague support. So far, the perceptions of working conditions have been compared between doctors and nurses, but there is limited knowledge regarding their respective supervisors. In addition, the violence prevention climate has not been assessed in German EDs before. Thus, the current study focuses on differences in the perceptions of working conditions and the violence prevention climate between the groups of doctor-supervisors, doctor-employees, nurse-supervisors, and nurse-employees within the ED. Further analyses regarding the association between social relations and pressure for unsafe practices are performed, including the moderating role of belonging to one of the aforementioned groups. A cross-sectional online survey was carried out among N = 370 participants, who were doctors or nurses from German EDs. The Questionnaire for Psychosocial Risk Assessment (QPRA) and the Violence Prevention Climate Scale (VPCS) were applied. Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed for group comparisons, followed by a hierarchical multiple linear regression model and moderation analyses. Statistically significant differences between the groups were found for eight out of 13 variables. The highest number of significant pairwise comparisons was found between the groups of doctor-supervisors and nurse-employees. High job demands regarding work…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cross-sectional, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause. Reported size: 370 participants or records.

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