Coping Strategies as a Mediator of Workplace Violence and Burnout among Emergency Room Nurses in Two Selected Hospitals in the United Arab Emirates: Basis for an Action Plan

Abstract

Background: This study examined workplace violence, coping strategies and burnout among emergency room nurses in two United Arab Emirates hospitals, including the potential mediating role of coping strategies. Methods: A quantitative descriptive-correlational design was used. From a sampling frame of 220 eligible nurses, 141 participants were selected by simple random sampling from the University Hospital of Sharjah (n = 71) and NMC Royal Hospital (n = 70). A self-administered questionnaire was used between June and September 2026. Descriptive statistics, Kendall's tau-b correlation and regression-based mediation analysis were applied. Results: Verbal abuse was reported sometimes (M = 2.84, SD = 1.27), whereas physical assault (M = 2.25, SD = 1.31) and threats (M = 2.41, SD = 1.30) were reported rarely. Active coping, positive reframing and acceptance were consistently used, while emotional support was used often. Respondents reported emotional exhaustion (M = 3.59, SD = 0.97), neutral depersonalisation (M = 3.05, SD = 1.18) and positive personal accomplishment (M = 4.05, SD = 0.88). Workplace violence was positively associated with burnout (τb = 0.430, p < 0.001), but not significantly associated with coping strategies (τb = −0.088, p = 0.136). Coping strategies were positively associated with burnout (τb = 0.192, p = 0.001). The indirect effect was not significant (B = 0.0021; 95% CI [−0.0068, 0.0130]). Conclusion: Coping strategies did not significantly mediate the observed association between workplace violence and burnout. The findings informed a proposed action plan prioritising violence prevention, incident reporting, de-escalation training and organisational support.