• Darcy Copeland and Melissa Henry.
• University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80631, USA; St Anthony Hospital, Lakewood, CO 80228, USA. Electronic address: Darcy.copeland@unco.edu.
• Int Emerg Nurs. 2018 Jul 1; 39: 26-32.

BackgroundEmergency department staff members are frequently exposed to workplace violence which may have physical, psychological, and workforce related consequences. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between exposure to workplace violence, tolerance to violence, expectations of violence, perceptions of workplace safety, and Professional Quality of Life (compassion satisfaction - CS, burnout - BO, secondary traumatic stress - STS) among emergency department staff members.MethodsA cross-sectional design was used to survey all emergency department staff members from a suburban Level 1 Trauma Centre in the western United States.ResultsAll three dimensions of Professional Quality of Life were associated with exposure to non-physical patient violence including: general threats (CS p = .012, BO p = .001, STS p = .035), name calling (CS p = .041, BO p = .021, STS p = .018), and threats of lawsuit (CS p = .001, BO p = .001, STS p = .02). Tolerance to violence was associated with BO (p = .004) and CS (p = .001); perception of safety was associated with BO (p = .018).ConclusionExposure to non-physical workplace violence can significantly impact staff members' compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Greater attention should be paid to the effect of non-physical workplace violence. Additionally, addressing tolerance to violence and perceptions of safety in the workplace may impact Professional Quality of Life.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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