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Scholarly Article Review

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Scholarly Article Review

Introduction

The article "Workplace Violence and Its Effects on Burnout and Secondary Traumatic

Stress among Mental Healthcare Nurses in Japan" by Kobayashi et al. (2020) is one of the

significant studies that have examined how workplace violence (WPV) affects caregivers in the

healthcare contexts. Kobayashi et al. investigate the likelihood of WPV and its implications

among nurses in the Japanese mental health context. Notably, workplace violence is a global

health concern, particularly in caregiving contexts, attracting the attention of different

researchers all over. According to the article, nurses are more likely to face WPV than any other

caregiver. The WPV among nurses is devastating because it leads to increased burnout, high

employee turnover, and reduced job fulfillment levels. Therefore, this paper is intended to

review, summarize, and critique Kobayashi et al.'s article to understand its significance in the

context of healthcare.

Article Summary

Statistics reveal that an average of 40% of caregivers are susceptible to WPV in their first

twelve months of operations, based on Kobayashi et al.'s (2020) analysis. In this case, the

research on mental health and trauma at the individual level found a sense of insecurity among

caregivers, affecting their psychology and physical well-being. At the corporate level, nurses'

fear of experiencing WPV in their future engagement leads to job anxiety, decreasing their

productivity. With the increased likelihood of affecting nurses, most feel concerned about their

health security when working, and such an experience influences their commitment. In addition,

nurses' fear of WPV likely leads to increased turnover and obstruction of effective recruitment of
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other caregivers. A large segment of caregivers focuses on different occupations other than

healthcare jobs.

Kobayashi et al.'s article has predominantly concentrated on the outcomes of healthcare

and nurses' work performance, especially those experiencing WPV. Yet, above the direct

implications of WPV, nurses could also be affected when working in an unsafe context, a

situation that could trigger insecurity, causing them to fear WPV in their future work, even for

those who have never experienced it. Such a prevalence influences the caregiving professionals,

not just because they have experienced WPV before, but because they fear it might occur in the

future. As such, safety in the healthcare context should be considered a priority to understand

their total capacity.

Evidence from this article further indicates that the different forms of nursing license

expose nurses to WPV, given that most of them were found to experience WPV compared to

assistant nurses. The latter was observed to have stronger reactions to stress due to their reduced

knowledge and capacity in the field than certified nurses. Nurses experience an increased

likelihood of WPV because they usually play a significant role in the healthcare context. For

instance, they urge patients to accept a specific treatment or medication. Besides, this article

highlights that psychiatric nurses in the acute health department encounter increased WPV than

nurses in other departments. This is consistently depicted by how patients with cognitive issues

(such as mental impedance, dementia, and drug abuse) frequently lead as perpetrators of WPV in

most healthcare settings.

The findings from this article are relevant to my nursing practice. Understanding the

feeling of fear among nurses can help understand how to better the performance in this

profession. For example, this research underlines the likely contributing factors of future WPV.
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These findings are significant in creating a safe working context in my areas of practice, which

would be essential in heightening the productivity of nurses and their safety. Additionally, the

authors demonstrate that if healthcare contexts take the required measures, like improving the

security systems in the hospital and improving prevention and response measures against WPV,

we could improve the nursing working context by controlling the prospective risk factors.

Article Critique

The strengths of this article lie in its ability to determine the likelihood of WPV and the

use of a cross-sectional design to study the correlations of different WPV exposures likely to

affect nurses in the mental caregiving setting. The versatility of this article is also an asset. Its

ability to examine the impacts of WPV and stressors in the nursing context makes it resourceful -

one of the few studies to have investigated how workplace violence (WPV) affects caregivers in

the healthcare contexts.

However, the article contains various limitations. The researchers failed to consider an

assessment group, such as considering different caregivers in an alternative context like the

medicine ward. Yet again, the article's generalizability has been limited by using unauthorized

evaluation versions for WPV and anger. Last but not least, the inability to get socio-demographic

data of non-participants led to selection bias.

Despite the limitations, I would recommend this article to a colleague because it is

practical and relevant to regular healthcare. The fact that the findings underline the existing fear

of experiencing WPV among nurses in the future is insightful for every caregiver. Thus, their

comprehension of working in a safe context would be significant for their mental health and

work productivity.

Conclusion
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The major objective of this paper was to review, summarize, and criticize Kobayashi et

al.'s article for understanding its significance in the context of healthcare. Nurses, unlike their

assistants, are likely to experience an increased likelihood of WPV because they serve and play a

significant role in the healthcare context. As noted, the fear of experiencing WPV in nurses'

future engagement leads to job anxiety and reduced work productivity. This reveals that nurses

could be affected when working in an unsafe environment, consequently becoming insecure and

fearing WPV in their future work. Therefore, understanding this article is vital in creating a safe

working context in healthcare and heightening nurses' productivity and safety. The review also

expands the current call to action to implement policies to alleviate WPV in caregiving.
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Reference

Kobayashi, Y., Oe, M., Ishida, T., Matsuoka, M., Chiba, H., & Uchimura, N. (2020). Workplace

Violence and Its Effects on Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress among Mental

Healthcare Nurses in Japan. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public

Health, 17(8), 2747. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082747