Competence of Workplace Violence Management by Nursing Interns: A Latent Profile Analysis.

Aim: To assess the competence level and latent profiles of nursing interns regarding their management of workplace violence (WPV).

Background: Workplace violence may have adverse effects on the physical and mental health, clinical practice behaviours and career plan of nursing interns. Besides, the competence of WPV management contributed to a sense of career security for nursing interns. However, few studies have focused on the current status of the competence of WPV management for nursing interns.

Design: A cross-sectional self-report design that followed STROBE guidelines.

Methods: A total of 379 Chinese nursing interns were invited from three tertiary hospitals in Chengdu city by convenience sampling in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected using the Sociodemographic Characteristics Questionnaire, the Management of Workplace Violence Competence Scale (MWVCS) and the Chinese version of the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10). Latent profile analysis and logistic regression were performed.

Results: The mean score of nursing interns' management competence of WPV was 152.87 (SD = 25.67). The best latent profile model was identified as three profiles, namely the 'low management competence of WPV subgroup' (19.5%), 'medium management competence of WPV subgroup' (64.1%) and 'high management competence of WPV subgroup' (16.4%), respectively. Multiple logistic regression showed that attending the violence prevention training, interest in the nursing profession and resilience were protective factors of management competence of WPV for nursing interns.

Conclusion: The majority of nursing interns perform at a medium level with noted heterogeneous characteristics, which contribute to identifying different nursing interns' perceptions of competence to manage WPV. Therefore, nursing managers can provide targeted intervention strategies to further promote the competence of WPV management for nursing interns.

Relevance to clinical practice: Nursing educators and managers could conduct systematic training on the competence of WPV management based on individual different characteristics, which can be used as pre-internship training programmes for nursing interns, and provide resilience support plans.

Patient or public contribution: No patients or public contribution.