Assessing workplace well-being in healthcare: The violence-prevention climate and its relationship with workplace happiness

Aim: To identify the relationship between the violence-prevention climate and workplace happiness in hospitals. The secondary objective is to adapt a valid and reliable scale to a different culture in healthcare settings. Background: Healthcare settings are not immune to the harmful effects of violence, which can exacerbate existing challenges such as staff shortages. In the midst of these challenges, organizational efforts to ensure the safety of health workers are critical. These efforts can contribute positively to workers' happiness or well-being. Method: Using a cross-sectional design with 400 healthcare professionals from five hospitals in Trabzon, Turkey, data collection involved the Violence-Prevention Climate Scale and Workplace Happiness Scale. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the Turkish validity and reliability of the scale, and the consistency coefficient was calculated. Results: The findings revealed that, on average, employees exhibited high levels of violence-prevention climate (x<overline> = 4.22) and moderate levels of workplace happiness (x<overline> = 3.70). Subsequently, correlation analysis unveiled a statistically significant association between the dimensions of violence-prevention climate and workplace happiness (p < 0.05, r = 0.392). It was observed that those who experienced violence and did not feel safe in the workplace had lower levels of happiness. Discussion: The instances of healthcare workers being exposed to violence identified in the study largely align with previous theories related to both individual and organizational effects. Conclusion: Violence-prevention climate affects the safety and workplace happiness of workers. Implications for nursing and/or health policy: Employees expect their managers to seriously consider all reports of violence. In this context, creating a violence-prevention climate would be a good start. According to WHO 2030 targets, in an environment where there is a significant shortage of healthcare personnel, especially nurses, ensuring that existing employees work in a safer and happier environment will make a positive contribution to healthcare systems.