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Abstract
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AIMS: To explore associations between specific violence prevention strategies and nurses' perceptions of workplace safety in medical-surgical and mental health settings.
BACKGROUND: Workplace violence is on the rise globally. Nurses have the highest risk of violence due to the nature of their work. Violence rates are particularly high among US and Canadian nurses. Although multiple violence prevention strategies are currently in place in public healthcare organizations in British Columbia, Canada, it is unknown whether these approaches are associated with nurses' perceptions of workplace safety.
DESIGN: This is an exploratory correlational design using secondary data.
METHODS: Using data obtained from a province-wide survey of nurses between March 2017 - January 2018, this study included 771 nurses from medical-surgical and 189 nurses from mental health settings. Data were analyzed using ordinal logistic regressions.
RESULTS: For medical-surgical and mental health nurses, greater perceptions of workplace safety were related to employers listening to them with respect to violence prevention strategies. Nurses in both settings were more likely to feel safe when they were not expected to physically intervene during a code white situation. Medical-surgical nurses were more likely to feel safe when code white incident reviews were conducted and fixed alarms were used. Mental health nurses were more likely to report feeling safe when they had enough properly trained code white responders on their unit.
CONCLUSION: Nurse-employer engagement is critical to nurses' perceptions of feeling safe at work. Engagement opportunities include nurses' involvement in discussions about appropriate violence prevention strategies, collaborative debriefing after violent incidents and co-development and updates of patients' behavioral care plans. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Language: en |