A rapid evidence assessment on prevention and reporting in nurses experiences of workplace violence

Workplace violence (WPV) is a profound issue in nursing. It adversely affects the physical and emotional well-being of healthcare professionals, compromises patient safety and care quality and creates a hostile and stressful work environment leading to burnout, decreased job satisfaction and a high turnover rate among nursing staff.

The aim of this paper is to examine prevention and reporting among nurses experiencing WPV.

A quantitative rapid evidence assessment of the literature including a search of ProQuest Central, EBSCO and Web of Science was conducted.

This rapid evidence assessment investigates two thematic areas: prevention and reporting. Each discussion section is thematically organised based on the key themes found in the literature.

Papers conclude several facilitators and barriers at personal, organisational and societal levels in their experiences of preventing and reporting WPV. Effectively preventing WPV requires organisational support through the implementation of robust training programmes and the presence of visible security staff. Addressing barriers to reporting WPV, such as inadequate training by management and nurses experiencing burnout, necessitates organisational changes. These changes should include improved education on mitigating WPV beyond high-risk setting, as well as fostering closer collaboration between security personnel and nursing staff.