Workplace violence against nurses in the emergency department of hospital in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan: A cross sectional survey

Abstract

In many countries, there is serious concern regarding workplace violence in the healthcare profession. Nursing is one of the profession in healthcare that is mostly exposed to various types of violence. Objectives: To determine the prevalence, experiences, responses, and effects of workplace violence against nurses. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out on emergency nurses regarding workplace violence in KPK Pakistan. A survey questionnaire was used to collect the data from June 2 and July 2, 2022. The sample size was 102 and the nurses who worked in the emergency department for six months were included in this study. Results: Females made up two-thirds of the study participants (64.7 percent, n = 66). Almost half of the participants (45.1%) had less than five years of experience. Majority of participants (92.2 percent) were verbally abused. More than half of the participants had been exposed more than three times, 35.3% and 31.4% had experienced this in night and morning shifts respectively. Only 39.2% of nurses were counselled by hospital management after workplace violence (WPV). Conclusions: The emergency department at KPK Hospital experiences workplace violence quite regularly, according to this study. A major blow to the nursing profession is caused by the poor level of job satisfaction among ED nurses