Resilience and its relationship with exposure to violence in emergency nurses

Background: Workplace violence (WPV) is a detrimental factor affecting nurses' health and performance. Individual protective factors such as resilience can assist nurses in coping with and adapting to workplace adversity. Objectives: The present study was aimed to determine the relationship between resilience and exposure to WPV in emergency nurses. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 118 emergency nurses in Tabriz educational hospitals, Iran. The participants were selected through a convenience sampling method. A demographic questionnaire, the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Modified Questionnaire of Workplace Violence in the health sector were used for data collection. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, logistic regression analysis, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance. Results: The mean resilience score of nurses was 25.05 ± 5.79 in the possible range of 0-40. Most of the cases of violence were verbal threats (80.5%), and 56.7% of the exposures occurred during the night shift. Logistic regression showed that lower resilience predicted verbal threats (P = 0.001) and physical attacks (P = 0.038) against the individual. In addition to resilience, working on the night shift significantly predicted verbal threats (P = 0.008) against nurses. Conclusion: The resilience score was lower in nurses who exposed to violence. Empowerment programs are suggested to improve the resilience of nurses.