Association among components of resilience and workplace violence-related depression among emergency department nurses in Taiwan: a cross-sectional study

Aim and objectives: This correlation study examined the relationship among recently workplace violence, depressive tendency, social support, and resilience of victimised nurses, and we also tried to identify protective factors and potential targets for preventive interventions for these nurses.

Background: Workplace violence in hospitals negatively affects occupational health and safety of medical professionals, especially for emergency department nurses.

Design: A cross-sectional, correlation research design was applied.

Methods: Hierarchical regression was used to examine data which were collected from June 2013 to December 2013 from emergency departments in Taiwan. One hundred and eighty nurses were recruited from two hospitals. Structured interviews and questionnaires were applied to collect data, including the Social Support Scale, the Resilience Scale and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression.

Results: A total of 159 (88·33%) nurses had suffered from physical or verbal violence by patients or their family. Resilience and peer support were significantly higher in the group without depressive tendency. Components of resilience of personal strength, social competence, structure style and religious beliefs were significant factors which accounted for 46·0% of variance in depressive tendency. Three of the five components of resilience: personal strength, social competence and structured style were found to have profounder effects against depressive tendency than peer support.

Conclusions: Hospital managers should establish a safer working environment for emergency department nurses and reinforce their resilience against depression when they encounter workplace violence.

Relevance to clinical practice: This study showed that three of the five components of resilience: personal strength, social competence and structured style are protective factors against depressive tendency in victimised nurses. Improving these three components with coping and problem-solving skills by healthcare manager would be effective measures for enhancing their resilience in situations of workplace violence.