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Protective and risk factors of workplace violence against nurses: A cross-sectional study

A. Bagnasco, G. Catania, Nicola Pagnucci, R. Alvaro, G. Cicolini, A. Dal Molin, L. Lancia, Maura Lusignani et al.

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2024

1,969 participants · 35 citations

Abstract

AIMS

To describe how workplace violence (WPV) is experienced by nurses in hospitals and community services and identify protective and risk factors.

METHODS

An online cross-sectional national study was conducted from January to April 2021 in Italy. Hospitals and community services were involved in the study. The survey combined the adapted and validated Italian version of the Violence in Emergency Nursing and Triage (VENT) questionnaire, which explores the episodes of WPV experienced during the previous 12 months, the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) and some additional questions about staffing levels extracted from a previous RN4CAST study. Nurses working in all clinical settings and community services were invited to participate in the survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. We adhered to the STROBE reporting guidelines.

RESULTS

A total of 6079 nurses completed the survey, 32.4% (n = 1969) had experienced WPV in the previous 12 months, and 46% (n = 920) reported WPV only in the previous week. The most significant protective factors were nurses' age, patients' use of illegal substances, attitude of individual nurses and considering effective the organization's procedures for preventing and managing episodes of violence. The most significant risk factors included workload, recognizing violence as an inevitable part of the job, patients' cultural aspects and patients' agitated behaviour. The frequency of WPV…

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