Institutional Silence and Informal Coping: A Qualitative Descriptive Study of Nurses' Experiences of Workplace Violence in Three Hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND/

OBJECTIVES

Saudi evidence on workplace violence (WPV) against nurses is largely survey-based. This study explored how nurses in three Riyadh hospitals experienced and coped with WPV, the institutional factors shaping their responses, and the improvements they proposed.

METHODS

In this qualitative descriptive study, 17 purposively recruited registered nurses from a tertiary government, a specialised government, and a private hospital took part in face-to-face semi-structured interviews (January-March 2026). Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and reported according to COREQ.

RESULTS

The findings describe participants' experiences and are not prevalence estimates. Four themes were constructed: (1) everyday exposure to violence and its cumulative burden; (2) coping through personal strategies and peer support; (3) institutional silence and gaps in organisational protection; and (4) balancing self-protection and therapeutic care. Participants described relying on personal and peer resources where they perceived institutional protection as insufficient. Their priorities for improvement, reported separately, centred on de-escalation training, simpler reporting, timely post-incident support, and leadership accountability.

CONCLUSIONS

In participants' accounts, informal coping absorbed harms that organisational systems did not address. Hospital managers could use these findings to check whether reporting, post-incident follow-up, training, staffing, and security arrangements work in practice. Participants' proposals require evaluation.