Abstract
Psychiatric staff are faced with multiple forms of hostility, aggression, and assault at work, collectively referred to as workplace violence, which typically is activated by patients but can also come from coworkers and supervisors. Whether workplace violence adversely affects staff well-being may be related not only to its presence, but also to an individual's stress reactivity. At a large public psychiatric hospital, an online survey was completed by 323 clinical care staff, of whom 69.5% had experienced physical assault in the previous 12months. Staff well-being (depression, anger, and physical health) and staff safety concerns were adversely affected by conflicts with other staff members and by individual reactivity to social conflict and to assault. To improve staff well-being, in addition to safety protocols, interventions should target staff relationships, personal health maintenance practices, and individual coping skills for dealing with adverse workplace experiences.
Highlights
The creation of a therapeutic environment is an essential goal for psychiatric inpatient settings
Psychiatric staff are faced with multiple forms of hostility, aggression, and assault at work, collectively referred to as workplace violence, which typically is activated by patients but can come from coworkers and supervisors
Staff at the highest risk for patient assault were those who were frequently exposed to conflict but were less reactive to conflict. These findings suggest that there may be a complex relationship between conflict, assault, and stress reactivity that bears on staff psychological and physical well-being in psychiatric settings
Summary
The creation of a therapeutic environment is an essential goal for psychiatric inpatient settings. Interpersonal antagonism in the form of discord, hostility, aggression, and assault are common occurrences on psychiatric hospital wards, and impair the development of a treatmentconducive milieu (Arnetz and Arnetz 2001). They produce adversities for staff well-being, detracting from patient care. The current study was designed to assess how multiple sources of workplace stress (patient assault, high-conflict aspects of patient care, and interstaff conflict) are related to staff well-being (physical health, mental health, and perceptions of safety), and to determine whether individual stress reactivity moderates that relationship. The present study will control for years of experience and direct care staff roles
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