Workplace violence, stress, and turnover intention among perioperative nurses

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to identify reports of workplace violence, stress and turnover intention among perioperative nurses. Methods: The data were collected using questionnaire from 162 perioperative. Results: All of the nurses in the study reported incidents of violence within six months of the study. Doctors and specifically operating surgeons were cited as perpetrating workplace violence. The stated source of the violence was failure or shortage of surgical equipment or instrument and fall out of surgeon's preference. Subjects reported (87.7%) workplace abuse from nurses and most often from senior nurses. Nurse abuse was in the form of verbal abuse. Fatigue and stress stemming from heavy workload were cited as the source of the workplace violence. The subjects reported stress levels of 7.39 out of a possible ten points from workplace violence. A little more than thirty five percent of the subjects reported having intentions to leave because of workplace violence. These nurses reported higher level of stress and experienced more workplace violence from nurses and doctors as compared to those nurses who reported no turnover intention. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that a third of the employed nurses reported wanting to leave their positions due to workplace violence. Workplace violence is a serious problem for nurses whether it is from physicians or from other nurses.