Experience of Workplace Violence among Intensive Care Unit Nurses

Abstract

Purpose:The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of workplace violence among intensive care unit nurses. Methods: The participants of this research were twelve registered nurses who work in the intensive care units (ICU) at the hospitals in Seoul and Gyunggido. Data were collected by individual in-depth interviews and analyzed using the phenomenological methodology by Colaizzi. Results: From significant statements, five theme clusters emerged as follow; 1) vulnerable young women to violence, 2) my own reflection was bruised and exhausted, 3) a hopeless everyday, 4) seeking a solution in relation, 5) establishing one's status as a professional nurse. Conclusion: This study provides a profound understanding on the experiences of workplace violence among ICU nurses. The hospitals are suggested to provide a safe environment by developing programs and policies to prevent and cope with hospital workplace violence for ICU nurses.

Experience of Violence from the Clients and Coping Methods Among Intensive Care Unit Nurses Working in a Hospital in South Korea

“…It has been reported that nurses, most of whom are young and female, fail to be good at communication with patients and their families [2]. This report is consistent with the finding that South Korea particularly has young female nurses, who are regarded as easier to talk to than doctors on the basis of cultural characteristics and they are considered an "easy target for emotional projection" [10]. In particular, intensive care nurses got hurt by a negative statement about their occupational values, "How can you be a nurse?…”

“…A questionnaire with 11 items was developed to determine types of coping methods with violence experience on the basis of literature review [5,10,11]. Five people, including four nurses who have been working at an ICU for more than 10 years and one nursing faculty at a university, have examined the content validity, and content validity index (CVI) was reported as .92.…”

“…The 205 intensive care nurses at a single general hospital in Seoul who understood the purpose and methods of this study and voluntarily consented to the research participated in this study. The inclusion criteria for sex were limited to females, and it is based on previous studies assuming that most of nurses are young females [2,10]. The data from a total of 200 of 205 participants, with the exception of 5 with missing answers, were finally analyzed.…”

“…Nurses who need to cope rapidly with any change in the health state of seriously ill patients in a closed space of an ICU are exposed to excessive job stress accompanied by keeping themselves more alert than those at any other department [8,9]. Intensive care nurses who perceive violence while giving care may fail to cope with the violence and keep working due to rapid workflow [10]. They also experience difficulty in making initial responses because their violence experience is hardly known externally due to the spatial characteristics of ICUs: being closed and isolated [11].…”

“…In short, although it is certain that intensive care nurses' PVV experience is a phenomenon to study, it is difficult to understand violent situations and its specific status on the basis of the findings from literature review alone. Identifying through qualitative methods by targeting a small number of nurses in an ICU [10], research results have been drawn from a survey of workplace violence [5,11,20]. However, violence occurring in a clinical setting cannot be understood in detail through quantitative methods, and hence, one cannot generalize workplace violence in an ICU as only by identifying small number of violence experience through the qualitative methods alone.…”