Workplace violence in nursing: A concept analysis

Abstract

Objectives: To clarify the concept of workplace violence in nursing and propose an operational definition of the concept.

Methods: The review method used was Walker and Avant's eight-step method.

Results: Identification of the key attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents of the concept resulted in an operational definition of the concept. The proposed operational definition identifies workplace violence experienced by nurses as any act or threat of verbal or physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the worksite with the intention of abusing or injuring the target.

Conclusions: Developing insights into the concept will assist in the design of new research scales that can effectively measure the underlying issues, provide a framework that facilitates nursing interventions, and improve the validity of future studies.

Keywords: concept analysis; harassment; health and safety; nurses and violence; occupational health nursing; workplace violence.

FIGURE 1

PRISMA diagram of search strategy adapted for use from Moher et al ²⁵

FIGURE 2

Antecedents, empirical referents, attributes, and consequences of workplace violence