Mental Health Nurse’s Exposure to Workplace Violence Leads to Job Stress, Which Leads to Reduced Professional Quality of Life

Abstract

Professional quality of life (ProQOL) reflects how individuals feel about their work as helpers. Psychiatric ward nurses cope with significant psychological and physical challenges, including exposure to verbal and physical violence. This study was based on two aspects of ProQOL, the positive compassion satisfaction, and the negative compassion fatigue, with the aim of investigating the relation of ProQOL to job stress and violence exposure at a large mental health center. Data were collected from 114 mental health nurses (49/63 M/F) who completed a self-administered questionnaire examining violence exposure, ProQOL, and job stress. The results showed that during the last year, almost all nurses (88.6%) experienced verbal violence, and more than half (56.1%) experienced physical violence. Only 2.6% experienced no violence. ProQOL was not associated with violence exposure but was reduced by work stress and by previous exposure to violence; nurses who perceived their work as more stressful had lower satisfaction from their work. In conclusion, although most mental health nurses are exposed to physical and verbal violence, their ProQOL is more related to job stress than to workplace violence (WPV). Hospital managements should conduct work stress reduction intervention programs and promote strategizes to reduce WPV. Further exploration of (a) factors affecting ProQOL and (b) the effect of violence coping workshops on ProQOL is warranted.

Factors Influencing Psychiatric Nurses’ Job Satisfaction Levels: Focusing on Their Frequency of Experiencing Negative Emotions Toward Patients and Support at Their Workplaces

“…[5][6][7][8] Importantly, it has been reported that the incidence of patient violence/related problems in psychiatric wards is 2-to 4 -times higher than that in general wards, 9 and nearly 90% of psychiatric nurses experience such violence. [10][11][12][13][14] Based on these findings, clinical psychiatric nurses are likely to deal with violence and offensive statements daily.…”

Workplace Violence Is Associated With Impaired Work Functioning in Nurses: An Italian Cross‐Sectional Study

“…In our sample the subjects exposed to violence reported a higher lack of energy and motivation score (subscale vi of the NWFQ) than their unexposed colleagues. Previous investigators have affirmed that WV can generate compassion fatigue and burnout (Itzhaki et al, 2018). Therefore, even if the cross‐sectional design of our study does not allow us to confirm any causal relationships, we can believe that, if the conditions of distress, violence, and perceived injustice should last for a long time, workers could be at risk for developing burnout.…”

Workplace Violence and Its Effects on Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress among Mental Healthcare Nurses in Japan

“…Researchers in Israel investigating mental healthcare nurses reported that the association between WPV and burnout/secondary traumatic stress was observed only indirectly via general work stress in the prior month [50]. Those authors explained that mental healthcare nurses may feel that WPV is an integral component of their job, and low burnout/secondary traumatic stress may be an adjusted reaction to their work environment [50,51]. Our present data showing a direct association between WPV and burnout may call this idea into question, and it may suggest that mental healthcare nurses with WPV feel a psychological overload as maladaptation to their work environment.…”