J Korean Clin Nurs Res.  2022 Aug;28(2):99-111. 10.22650/JKCNR.2022.28.2.99.

Effects of Nurses' Workplace Violence Experiences on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Resilience and Social Support at Work

• Kang CE
• Eun Y

• KMID: 2536718
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.22650/JKCNR.2022.28.2.99

Abstract

Purpose
This study aimed to identify the relationship between the experiences of workplace violence and post-traumatic stress disorder and the moderating effect of resilience and social support at work on the relationship in tertiary hospital nurses.
Methods
This was a descriptive correlation study to confirm the moderating effect of resilience and social support at work on the factors affecting post-traumatic stress disorder for nurses who have experienced violence. A total of 146 registered nurses were recruited from a tertiary hospital from March to July 2020. The Participants who worked for more than one year and experienced violence at work completed self-reported questionnaires that measured the experiences of workplace violence and post-traumatic stress disorder, resilience, social support at work, and demographic information. The collected data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and hierarchical regression analysis.
Results
The nurses experienced verbal abuse an average of 3.70±2.06 times a week, physical threat an average of 2.30±1.71 times a month, and physical assault an average of 0.76±0.82 times a year. The Experiences of workplace violence were significantly increased post-traumatic stress disorder. The result also showed that resilience moderated the relationship between the experience of verbal abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder in hospital nurses. However, there was no significant moderating effect of social support between workplace violence and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Conclusion
The experiences of workplace violence influenced post-traumatic stress disorder in nurses and were moderated by resilience. Therefore, hospital administrators need to develop and provide a workplace violence prevention and resilience reinforcement program to reduce post-traumatic stress disorder in nurses. In addition, we suggest further research on the effect of social support in a workplace on the experiences of violence.

Keyword

Violence; Nurses; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; Social Support; Resilience