Exploring Jordanian Emergency Registered Nurses’ Experiences of Workplace Violence: A Phenomenological Study

Workplace violence (WPV) is one of the most dangerous hazards facing nurses around the world. Violence is a reality facing ED nurses every time they go to work. The purpose of this manuscript-style dissertation was to explore and describe Jordanian emergency department (ED) registered nurses’ lived experiences of WPV while working in the ED.
The first scholarly paper is a published manuscript of concept analysis. This manuscript is clarifying the concept of workplace violence in nursing and proposes an operational definition of the concept. The concept is guided by Walker and Avant’s method, which is commonly applied in the nursing context. The concept analysis process helps to validate current nursing understanding, as well as support strategies for nursing interventions. This approach was utilized to analyze the current understanding of the workplace violence to which nurses are subjected as it offers an interactive process that can facilitate the development of an operational definition of the concept.
The second scholarly paper, a published manuscript, is a metasynthesis exploring the experiences of workplace violence towards ED nurses globally. This manuscript synthesizes qualitative studies across countries such as the United States, Ireland, Taiwan, Iran, Australia, and Italy. The metasynthesis is analyzed using the metaethnographic approach following Noblit and Hare’s guidance for synthesizing qualitative studies.
The third manuscript, a qualitative descriptive phenomenological research design describing Jordanian registered nurses’ lived experiences of workplace violence in the emergency department. Twelve participants engaged in unstructured interviews and Colaizzi’s (1978) method was used to identify themes. The data analysis resulted in 111 significant statements, which formed four overarching themes: (a) Feeling Overwhelmed That Violence is so Common, (b) Ambivalent Feelings About Patients and Their Families, (c) Feeling Inadequate to Handle Violent Situations, and (d) Suffering Nurses. Working in the emergency was described as “We were in a scary movie.” The results make clear the importance of taking a realistic approach by policymakers, healthcare leadership, and managers to establish WPV prevention programs.