Risk of Violence among Nurses in Emergency Departments at Baghdad City Hospitals: The Mediating Role of the Work Environment

Abstract

Background: Workplace violence is a problem of international healthcare among the workers in all departments of the healthcare systems, but more severe at the emergency departments.Nurses in the emergency departments are working on the front lines of violence. This study aims to examine risk of violence among nurses in the emergency departments and to find out the association between nurses' age, years of working in nursing, years of working in emergency departments, work hours, violent events by patients, violent events by coworkers, likelihood of exposure to violence in the future, work environment, intention to leave the job, and risk of violence. Method: A descriptive predictive study design has been carried out.A non-probability (convenience) sample of (380) nurses from the emergency departments of (12) hospitals in Baghdad city center were selected to participate in the study. Data were collected through a self-report instrument that includesnurses socio-demographic data, the employment data, general information about the violent events, Intention to Leave the Job Scale, Risk of Violence Scale, Violent Events by Patient Scale, Violent Events by co-workers Scale, Likelihood of Exposure to Violence in the Future Scale and the Nursing Work Environment Scale. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. The study results revealed thata half of the nurses described the risk of violence they can expose to in the workplace as average. There is a statistically significant inverse correlation between nurses' age, years of experience in nursing, years of experience in EDs and their exposure to violent event by the coworkers, and risk of violence. The researcher concluded that the younger the nurses, the less the experience they have in nursing, the less the experience they have in the EDs, the greater the exposure to violence by coworkers, and risk of violence.