Workplace Aggression and Burnout in Nursing—The Moderating Role of Follow-Up Counseling

Sylvie Vincent-Höper, Maie Stein, Albert Nienhaus and Anja Schablon
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Sylvie Vincent-Höper: Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Universität Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Maie Stein: Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Universität Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Albert Nienhaus: Department of Occupational Medicine, Hazardous Substances and Public Health, Institution for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention in the Health and Welfare Services, 22089 Hamburg, Germany
Anja Schablon: Competence Centre for Epidemiology and Health Services Research for Healthcare Professionals (CVcare), University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), 20246 Hamburg, Germany

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: The aim of this study is to obtain a better understanding of the association between the frequency of nurses’ exposure to workplace aggression from patients and their levels of burnout. In particular, we seek to shed light on the role of the availability of follow-up counseling in organizations after critical incidents in mitigating the adverse relationships between physical and verbal aggression and nurses’ burnout. A total of 582 nurses reported how frequently they had experienced physical and verbal aggression from patients in the last 12 months and whether they had the opportunity to receive follow-up counseling in their organization. In addition, nurses rated the extent to which they experienced each of the three dimensions of burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment). The results showed that both physical and verbal aggression were substantially related to the burnout dimensions. Furthermore, we found that the availability of follow-up counseling in organizations attenuated the relationships between physical aggression and all three burnout dimensions. While we found that the availability of follow-up counseling moderated the relationship between verbal aggression depersonalization, the moderating effects were not significant for emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. The findings indicate that the availability of follow-up counseling might help minimize the adverse impact of exposure to aggression from patients on nurses’ mental health.

Keywords: nursing; aggression; violence; burnout; emotional exhaustion; depersonalization; personal accomplishment; post-event assistance; post-event counseling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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