Interventions to Prepare and Support New Graduate Nurses for Responding to Workplace Violence: A Scoping Review

Workplace violence remains a pervasive occupational hazard in nursing, with new graduate nurses being particularly at risk during their transition to professional practice. Limited authority, inadequate coping resources, and low confidence in managing aggression contribute to their vulnerability. This scoping review maps interventions designed to prepare and support new graduate nurses in responding to Type II (patient/visitor-initiated) and Type III (colleague-initiated) workplace violence. Following the Arksey and O'Malley framework and guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology, five electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria, comprising two focused exclusively on Type II violence, nine on Type III violence, and two addressing both types. The identified interventions primarily encompassed educational strategies (e.g., cognitive rehearsal training and transition programs) and organizational strategies (e.g., mentorship, reporting systems, and institutional safety policies). Quantitative measures showed limited reductions in violence incidence, while qualitative data consistently demonstrated improved confidence, recognition skills, and self-efficacy. Marked heterogeneity in outcome measurement precludes direct comparison across studies. Existing interventions effectively enhance new graduate nurses' self-efficacy and confidence in responding to workplace violence, yet have shown limited impact on violence occurrence itself. This suggests that while educational interventions can strengthen individual preparedness, meaningful reductions in workplace violence require broader organizational and perpetrator-focused strategies, alongside standardized measurement approaches capable of capturing change across different outcome domains.