Physiological and Psychological Impact of Occupational Violence on Mental Health Nurses and Role of Nurse Manager: A Systematic Review

Running head: ASSESSMENT 2
Assessment 2
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ASSESSMENT 2
Introduction
Occupational violence (OV) among the mental health nurses under the healthcare
settings is a well-known issue. The high level of nurse to patient contact increases the
vulnerability of encountering this occupational hazard (Hvidhjelm et al., 2016). Nowrouzi
and Huynh (2016) however, highlighted a different perspective altogether. Pekurinen et al.
(2017) stated that the nurses who stay more time with the healthcare service users are at
lower risk in comparison to the nurses who spent less time with the patient in developing OV.
The victims of the OV like the nurses tend to become victim of post-traumatic stress response
that hampers the overall mental health of the nursing professionals (Itzhaki et al., 2018).
Ramacciati, Bambi and Rasero (2018) stated that the nurse perception about the poor
organizational justice and lack of proper team work negatively affect the patient to staff and
staff to staff interaction that increase severity of OV. The consequences of the OV or the
workplace violence (WPV) increase the overall service costs and at the same time decrease
the overall standards of care.
The purpose of this assignment is to elucidate the physiological and psychological
impact of the OV over the mental healthcare nursing professionals and to elucidate the role
mental health nurse manager in order to decrease the impact of the occupational violence.
The out of the context in which the assessment has occurred is: conduction of this assessment
will help to improve the overall quality of the under the mental health nursing practice. Niu et
al. (2019) are of the opinion that the mental health nursing professionals who become victim
of the OV exhibit reduced quality of care along with fall in the overall work morale and this
increases their turnover rate. Thus elucidation of the mental and physical impact of the OV
over the mental health (MH) nurses and the role of the MH nurses in order to reduce the
occurrence rate of the OV will help to improve the overall quality of care.

2ASSESSMENT 2
The assignment will initiate with conducting a systematic review of the articles that
coincide with the scope of the research topic and were published within the last 10 years
followed by analysis of the mental health nursing practice that will help to bring the change.
Definitions
Occupational Violence: Occupational violence occurs when someone is abused,
assaulted, threatened in relation to their work. OV can be both physical and verbal. The
majority of the OV occurring under the mental healthcare practices are perpetrated either by
the patients or their family members. Under disaster and conflict situations, the healthcare
workers become victim of the collective or political violence (WHO, 2019).
Mental health nurse: Mental health services in Australia provide help to 4.2 million
patients with mental-health complications. The duty of the mental health nurse provides
services to the people suffering from the mental health complications like depression,
anxiety, stress, post-traumatic disorder, schizophrenia, dementia and Alzheimer. Nearly 1 out
of 15 nurses including the registered and the enrolled nurses in Australia are working as the
mental health nurses (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2019).
Nurse Manager: Nurse Managers are the senior nursing professionals who are
responsible for creating safe and healthy work environment while improving the overall
quality of care for the patients. Their role is influential towards creating a professional work
environment and at the same time fostering a culturally competent work environment where
the inter-disciplinary team members provide a significant contribution in order to improve the
patient outcome (Warshawsky & Havens, 2014).
According to the study conducted by Tonso et al. (2016) under the Australian
perspective, OV in the mental health setting is an alarming issue and there is limited

3ASSESSMENT 2
knowledge about the nature, frequency and the other health consequences of the staffs who
are exposed to the workplace violence under the Australian healthcare settings. In order to
address this gap, Tonso et al. (2016) conducted a study over the mental health nursing
professionals in Victoria Australia with cross-sectional exploratory descriptive type study
design. A total of 1600 mental health care nurses were included in the study. The analysis of
the results reported that mental health nurses are vulnerable to become victim of OV in the
form of physical violence, verbal aggression and bullying. The members of the victims of the
OV experience psychological problems. The nature, severity and the overall health impact of
the OV represents a significant safety concerns for the mental health nursing professionals
and thus nurse managers must come forward with tailored strategies for prevention of the
OV.
Background and Context to Health Research Project
Who are involved: The main stakeholders of this research project are the mental
healthcare nurses who are the victims of the OV, the patients and the family members are
promote OV over the mental health nurses. The final stakeholder of this project is mental
healthcare nurse manager who controls and co-ordinates the work flow in the mental health
ward.
When/where did this occur: Under the mental health ward, in-patient hospital
settings.
Contributing factors leading to health problem: Extended shift timings, lack of
proper mental health nursing workforce, lack of skills of the mental health nurses and poor
management of the overall work execution under the mental healthcare settings