Nurses' experiences of workplace violence in psychiatric nursing: a qualitative review protocol.

Objective: The objective of this review is to explore nurses' experiences of workplace violence in the field of psychiatric nursing.

Introduction: Although violent incidents are more common in psychiatric inpatient settings (e.g., psychiatric hospitals), violence has increased in psychiatric outpatient settings (e.g., mental health centers and day centers). Exposure to workplace violence can impact nurses' resilience and levels of burnout. However, there is a lack of qualitative evidence specifically identifying nurses' experiences of workplace violence in the context of psychiatric nursing. This review will appraise and synthesize available evidence related to nurses' experiences of workplace violence in the context of psychiatric nursing.

Inclusion Criteria: This review will consider studies that relate to nurses working in the field of psychiatric nursing in mental health settings worldwide. The specific inclusion criteria are as follows: qualitative studies that explore the experiences of nurses regarding workplace violence published in English, Finnish, or Swedish with no publication date limitations.

Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, and the Directory of Open Access Journals will be searched to identify published studies. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Google Scholar, and MedNar will be searched to identify unpublished studies. The review will be conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for systematic reviews of qualitative evidence. Qualitative research findings will be pooled using JBI System for the Unified Management, Assessment, and Review of Information with the meta-aggregation approach. The ConQual approach will be used to assess confidence in the findings.