Search

Aims To assess nurses' burnout and its association with their perceived quality of patient care and occurrence of adverse events (AEs) during COVID‐19. Background Burnout is a serious problem among nursing staff internationally with negative impacts on the quality of care and patient safety. Methods We conducted a cross‐sectional online study among 1,004 Iranian nurses through the convenience sampling technique. Data were collected using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, five items of questions related to self‐reported poor patient care quality and estimated occurrence of AEs. Results Prevalence of high burnout among nurses was 31.5%. The risk of AEs ranged from 26.1% to 71.7%. Self‐reported quality of patient care was found to be poor. A positive correlation was found between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scores and patient care quality, whereas a negative correlation was found between personal accomplishment scores and all poor care item scores. Depersonalization was found to increase the risk of the onset of all AEs (odds ratio [OR] = 1.06–1.08). Also, Personal accomplishmentreduced the risk of occurrence of ‘medication errors’ (OR = 0.99) and the onset of ‘patient and their family verbal abuse’ (OR = 0.97). Conclusions Our findings confirmed the hypothesis that a higher degree of burnout is correlated with a perceived higher number of AEs and reduced perceived patient care quality. Implications for Nursing Management Reducing burnout among nurses through implementing interventions may be an effective strategy to enhance patient care quality and reduce the number of AEs in Iranian public hospitals. Therefore, in order to minimize work burnout, primary approaches include access to psychosocial support, including Web‐based services, psychological first aid, mental support hotlines and self‐care techniques during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

AIM The present study aims to assess the perception of nurses, patients and their relatives regarding the nature of workplace violence against nurses. BACKGROUND Workplace violence adversely affects the health, well-being and safety of nurses and the quality of nursing care. METHODS In the present descriptive comparative study, the nature of violence was assessed using a modified and validated International Labor Office, the International Council of Nurses, World Health Organization, and Public Services International Questionnaire. RESULTS Nurses, patients and relatives reported verbal abuse as the most common and sexual violence as the least common type of violence against nurses. Nurses mostly blamed factors associated with patients and their relatives as the cause of violence, whereas patients and their relatives blamed social factors. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that violence is significantly prevalent in clinical settings, but its nature is differently perceived by nurses, patients and their relatives. This phenomenon requires further studies because knowledge of the causes of this difference could help to reduce and control violence. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT It is necessary that nursing managers inform nurses about protocols for reporting all such cases in order to collect information, and based on a clear procedure, actively pursue reported cases and take the necessary measures to prevent violence against nurses.

Aim The purpose of this study was to explore the types and frequency of verbal abuse of nurses by other nurses. Further, this study explored the components, characteristics, consequences and effects of abuse in an effort to better understand the dynamics of verbal abuse of nurses in the workplace. Nurses who experience occupational burnout are more likely to abuse other nurses. Background It is believed that nurses have been historically subjected to verbal abuse by colleagues, something previously considered to be done primarily by doctors. The effects and consequences of verbal abuse can be devastating and long-lasting. Research that has focused on its consequences has found that it is both physiologically and psychologically damaging. Method Participants completed an adapted survey, incorporating the Verbal Abuse Scale and the Verbal Abuse Survey and demographic questions developed by the researchers. Specifically, types of verbal aggression, the frequency and stressfulness of each type, emotional reaction to verbal aggression, cognitive appraisal of verbally aggressive encounters, and similarity and effectiveness of coping behaviours were explored. The long-term negative effects of verbal aggression, including absenteeism and errors in patient treatment, were also evaluated to determine if verbal aggression is a contributing factor. Results Respondents reported that the most frequent source of abuse was nurses (27%), followed by patients’ families (25%), doctors (22%), patients (17%), residents (4%), other (3%) and interns (2%). Of those who selected a nurse as the most frequent source, staff nurses were reported to be the most frequent nursing source (80%) followed by nurse managers (20%). Conclusions Verbal abuse in nursing is quite costly to the individual nurses, the hospitals and the patients. Nurses who regularly experience verbal abuse may be more stressed, may feel less satisfied with their jobs, may miss more work and may provide a substandard quality of care to patients.