Workplace violence

Health Management Glossary

Workforce and Leadership

Definition. Workplace violence in health care is any physical assault, threat, verbal abuse or harassment directed at health workers in circumstances related to their work.

Explanation

Violence may come from patients, relatives, visitors or colleagues. Liu et al. (2019) estimated in a meta-analysis that about six in ten health workers experience some form of workplace violence, most often verbal abuse, with the highest rates in emergency departments and psychiatric settings.

Phillips (2016) describes violence as widely underreported and normalised as part of the job. Prevention combines environmental design, staffing, de-escalation training, clear reporting procedures and organisational support for staff after incidents.

Related concepts

Burnout Turnover intention Patient safety culture

Read on The Health Topics

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References

Liu, J., Gan, Y., Jiang, H., Li, L., Dwyer, R., Lu, K., et al. (2019). Prevalence of workplace violence against healthcare workers: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 76(12), 927–937.

Phillips, J. P. (2016). Workplace violence against health care workers in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 374(17), 1661–1669.

Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Workplace violence. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/workplace-violence/

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