Workplace violence: A qualitative study drawing on the perspectives of UK nursing students

Background: Workplace violence (WV) remains problematic and highly prevalent in healthcare with nursing students being particularly vulnerable. Aim: To investigate the impact of WV from the perspective of nursing students. Methods: A qualitative design was employed. A total of 444 nursing students in the UK participated in the study. Findings: The qualitative data were analysed, coded and three main themes emerged; (1) violence culture in nursing, (2) tolerating violence and (3) the impact of violence. Discussion: The undesirable truth is each year nearly more than half of the students face WV in environments where such a behaviour becomes culturally embedded and passed between generations of nurses. This process of normalisation requires intervention that will break this cycle to enable more appropriate workplace behaviours to flourish. Conclusion: The impact of WV can be extremely destructive for the individual, the profession and ultimately patient care with large numbers choosing to leave at a time when there is a national shortage of qualified staff. (C) 2020 Australian College of Nursing Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd.