With increased emotional and physical safety

Workplace violence (WPV) is a common occurrence in a public health setting especially in psychiatric wards given the mental status of the patient population. WPV is diverse and includes physical, verbal, social and emotional abuse. Psychiatric ward nursing population are at a high risk given their time spent around the patients. Cases of abuse of authority have also been reported according to The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Research studies display a 10% of the WPV across the globe reflects the incidents in medical care. The safety and security measures are more prominent and visible in mental health care settings due to its high-risk environment. However, the safety in the non-psychiatric medical care receives relatively less attention and is often rendered less significant. Often the perpetrators are among the abled patients and their visitors. The abuse comes in different forms such as bullying, physical assault and sexual harassment being most common. In the recent decades the policies, protocols towards patients and measures of the nursing staff safety has been reconsidered (Cheung, Lee, & Yip, 2017).

The strategies employed to prevent the workplace incidents involved the training of nurses to recognise the early signs of probable violence thereby improving their risk assessment in a given situation and report the same. This method of approach does not influence the decline of the incidents, yet it encourages the nurses to manage the situation (Niu et al., 2019).

Research design:

The current study is a quantitative analysis on a small size population of nursing staff to assess the prevalence of WPV in a hospital and the skills essential to manage the situations through one day training workshop which is further evaluated with a CPD questionnaire. The details of the workshop are not discussed however the percentages of prevalence is mentioned. The intention of the nurses and confidence levels to cope against the high-risk patients is recorded on a scale of -10. Post the test an increase in the levels of confidence in the nursing was observed. The research methodology is approved by Health District Human Research Ethics Committee.

Ethical considerations:

Research was conducted with the ethical approval from the participants and local Health district committees. The participants selected for this current study volunteered from the selected organization. The forms and questionnaires were handed out with an implied written and verbal consent from all the participants. The paper does not reveal any information regarding the previous WPV experiences of the participants. The emotional quotient of the participants is considered normal.

Recommendations for practise:

The paper encourages the hospitals to be more attentive to the security needs of the nursing staff and recommends the rigorous training in the areas of managing the patient and associated family members in terms of aggression and sexual harassment. Lack of clear patient protocols and awareness of the existing protocols leads to this behaviour.

Cheung, T., Lee, P. H., & Yip, P. S. F. (2017). Workplace Violence toward Physicians and Nurses: Prevalence and Correlates in Macau. International journal of environmental research and public health, 14(8), 879. doi:10.3390/ijerph14080879

Légaré, F., Borduas, F., Freitas, A., Jacques, A., Godin, G., Luconi, F., & Grimshaw, J. (2014). Development of a simple 12-item theory-based instrument to assess the impact of continuing professional development on clinical behavioral intentions. PloS one, 9(3), e91013.