Nurses' experience of workplace violence

Nurses rank among the most trusted professionals, and yet, paradoxically, they are also among the professionals that experience more violence at work. Workplace violence, and specifically violence against nurses, is a pervasive and serious problem in the field, and it has been for decades; to make matters worse, according to reports, violence in the health care environment is escalating. The focus of this thesis is to provide an overview of nurses' experience of workplace violence (WPV) from the perspective of the practicing clinicians. Creating awareness to the situation is important for new nurses and other people who are involved in the health care system, so that there could be a common consensus on the extensiveness of workplace violence and the need for finding solutions. The present study was carried out as a literature review. Collection of data was done through the database Cinahl. From a total of 68 studies, 8 were selected based on the inclusion criteria of the study. The selected articles were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. The unifying result of this study were discrepancies or contradictions on clinicians’ experiences and knowledge about workplace violence and the posited solutions. Three main categories were generated under that rubric: Zero tolerance policy vs “It’s part of the job”; Individual vs institutional and social responsibility; and Sacrifice vs neglect