A Narrative Review of Strategies and Interventions to Mitigate Microaggressions as a Form of Workplace Violence

Workplace violence is an urgent issue for psychiatric mental health nurses. While physical workplace violence is overt, microaggressions are covert. Microaggressions are brief, daily offenses that communicate negativity. An estimated 90% of healthcare providers report experiencing microaggressions. However, evidence-based strategies and interventions for mitigating microaggressions in healthcare settings are not well established.

The purpose of the review was to identify strategies and interventions for addressing microaggressions that are applicable to nurses.

The evidence-based literature review was conducted using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Databases included Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, and PubMed. Published articles from 2010 to 2024 were included if they: (a) discussed strategies or interventions for reducing microaggressions and (b) included health professions students, educators, healthcare workers, or first responders in the sample. After a preliminary review, deduplication and eligibility criteria screening of 102 articles, 17 articles were included in the review.

Of the 17 articles, seven reported on communication strategies and eight on interventions. Four articles highlighted microinterventions as a strategy to address microaggressions. Seven of the eight intervention studies used a descriptive, pre/post-test design. All intervention studies targeted medicine professionals and none nurses. Most interventions effectively raised awareness and the ability to recognize microaggressions, but the effectiveness to reduce microaggressions was not measured.

Findings suggest further research is needed on strategies and interventions addressing microaggressions, particularly for nurses.