Relationships among demands at work, aggression, and verbal abuse among registered nurses in South Korea

Background: In order to improve organizational culture and job outcomes, it is important to characterize and better understand the relationship between aggression and verbal abuse among nurses. Purpose: To examine the relationships among demands at work, aggression, and verbal abuse among nurses. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using survey data from three tertiary hospitals located in South Korea. Sixteen nursing units were selected and 378 nurses’ data were used as the final sample. The relationships were examined by multiple linear or logistic regression analyses. Findings: More than 70% of the nurses had experienced at least 1 type of verbal abuse. Higher physical aggression and hostility were significantly related to greater verbal abuse experience. Conclusion: To prevent the vicious cycle of victims becoming perpetrators, it is necessary to develop and implement concrete strategies to manage verbal abuse and aggression among nurse colleagues.