WORKPLACE VIOLENCE AND DEPRESSION IN FEMALE NURSES:THE ROLE OF EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Abstract

Background: Workplace violence is an escalating occupational hazard in healthcare settings worldwide, and emergency departments (EDs) are consistently identified as among the highest-risk units within hospitals. In Pakistan, where nursing remains an overwhelmingly female profession, female emergency nurses are routinely exposed to verbal abuse, threats, intimidation and at times physical aggression from patients and attendants, often within chronically under-resourced public-sector hospital environments. The cumulative psychological burden of this exposure, compounded by emotional exhaustion and disrupted work-life balance, is believed to contribute substantially to depressive experiences among this workforce, yet the lived, subjective dimension of this phenomenon remains poorly documented in the local context. Problem Statement: Although a growing body of cross-sectional, quantitative research has documented the prevalence of workplace violence against nurses in Pakistani hospitals, there remains a marked scarcity of in-depth qualitative inquiry that captures how female emergency nurses themselves interpret, narrate and emotionally process these experiences, particularly in relation to depression, emotional exhaustion and the spillover of occupational stress into family and personal life. Purpose: This study aims to explore the lived experiences of workplace violence and depression among female nurses working in the emergency departments of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), Peshawar and to examine how emotional exhaustion and work-life balance shape and intensify these experiences. Methodology: An exploratory, interpretive qualitative design, informed by phenomenological principles, will be employed. Twenty-five (25) female staff nurses currently working in the emergency departments of LRH and HMC will be recruited through purposive sampling. Data will be collected through in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews conducted in Urdu and/or English, audio-recorded with consent, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Braun and Clarke's six-phase thematic analysis framework. Sample and Setting: The study will be conducted in the emergency departments of two major public tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, selected for their high patient load, documented exposure to workplace violence, and representativeness of the public hospital emergency nursing workforce. Emerging Themes: It is anticipated that themes will emerge around forms and frequency of workplace violence, emotional and psychological injury, depressive symptomatology and silent suffering, emotional exhaustion and depletion, disruption of family and personal life, perceived institutional neglect and coping and resilience strategies. Significance: The findings are expected to generate context-specific, experience-near knowledge that can inform hospital administration, mental health nursing practice, workplace violence prevention policy and nursing education in Pakistan, while contributing to the broader South Asian literature on occupational mental health among female healthcare workers.

Keywords: Workplace violence, depression, emotional exhaustion, work-life balance, female nurses, emergency department, qualitative research, Pakistan.