Exposure to User Violence, Job Satisfaction, and Burnout in Nurses: Comparison of Mental Health with Other Health Areas

Abstract

The risk of workplace violence is particularly important in the health sector, and the collective of mental health nurses is one of the most affected. The goals of this study are to determine the differences in frequency and type of exposure to user violence towards Mental Health nurses compared with other areas of nursing, as well as the relationship between exposure to violence and workers' level of burnout and satisfaction. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study, based on a self-applied and anonymous questionnaire that assessed exposure to user violence with the HABS-U (Hospital Aggressive Behaviour Scale-Users), the level of burnout with the Maslach Burnout Inventory-GS (MSI-GS) and job satisfaction with the Overall Job Satisfaction (OJS) scale in the nursing staff of hospitals, Primary Care, and Mental Health, for which a random sampling, stratified by centers and services, was performed, finally obtaining a sample size of 819 subjects. The main results reveal that Mental Health nurses are more frequently exposed to expressions of physical and non-physical violence than nurses from the rest of the studied areas, and the most common violent behavior in Mental Health is patients' anger due to their questioning the professionals' decisions. A higher level of satisfaction was detected among Mental Health nurses than in other areas, and there was a lack of correlation between exposure to violence and these workers' level of cynicism. Therefore, we can conclude that, although Mental Health workers are exposed to more violence, its psychological influence seems to be lower.