Workplace violence against nurses in Indonesian emergency departments

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the experiences of violent incidents by nurses in Indonesian emergency departments. Method: The World Health Organization's structured questionnaire on workplace violence in the health sector was modified and translated into Bahasa. The study participants were 169 nurses working in emergency departments in six hospitals in Jakarta and Bekasi, Indonesia. The gathered data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Ten percent of emergency nurses reported experiencing physical violence, perpetrated mostly by patients, whereas more than half of emergency nurses (54.6%) reported experiencing non-physical violence, with patients’ relative as the main perpetrators. A majority of nurses (55.6%) did not have encouragement to report workplace violence, and very few nurses (10.1%) had received any information or training about workplace violence. Conclusions: The findings of this study highlighted the seriousness of violence in Indonesian emergency departments. Support from management, encouragement to report violence, and access to workplace violence training were expected to mitigate and manage violence against nurses in emergency departments.