The impact of heavy nurse workload and patient/family complaints on workplace violence: An application of human factors framework.

Workload factors at multiple levels were directly related to workplace violence. Nurses' increased reports of compromised standards (job level) and interruptions (task level) were related to increased reports of physical and emotional violence, and higher patient acuity (unit level) was related to increased reports of emotional violence. Patient/family complaints mediated the relationship between almost all the workload factors and workplace violence.