Workplace violence experienced by student nurses during clinical placement at psychiatric insitutions in KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

Workplace violence directed at student nurses in training in psychiatric institutions is a significant concern as it negatively affects the quality of learning and causes the students to have a negative perception of nursing as a profession. The absence of scientific data describing the perceptions of student nurses about workplace violence and their clinical learning outcome motivated the researcher to conduct the study. Quantitative, descriptive research was conducted to explore the influence that workplace violence will have on clinical learning outcomes of student nurses who are studying psychiatric nursing at psychiatric institutions in KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa. Data was gathered using a 71 question questionnaire, which was adapted from the one used by Hewett (2010). With the necessary permission from the health authorities, the campus principals and the nursing students, a group of 4th year student nurses (n=163) from 6 campuses of the KwaZulu-Natal College of Nursing (KZNCN) who have worked in psychiatric units for at least 3 months and longer participated in the study. The study highlighted the types of workplace violence encountered by student nurses, the effects of workplace violence on students’ academic performance and the barriers to the reporting of workplace violence encountered by the student nurses. The study revealed that there is a large amount of non-physical, some physical and a few incidents of sexual violence directed towards the student nurses at the psychiatric institutions, and that it has a negative impact on student learning. The recommendations emanating from the study support the idea of a shared responsibility between healthcare and education institutions and the focus is on preparing and equipping the student psychiatric nurses to confront, withstand and break the cycle of workplace violence.