Workplace Violence in Indonesian Clinical Learning Environments: Cultural and Organisational Contexts Shaping Nursing Students’ Experiences

Nurs Inq. 2026 Oct;33(4):e70154. doi: 10.1111/nin.70154.

ABSTRACT

Workplace violence in clinical learning environments is increasingly recognised as a threat to nursing education and workforce sustainability, yet it is often understood as a series of isolated incidents rather than as a condition shaped by broader cultural and organisational forces. This study explored how workplace violence was experienced by nursing students, clinical nurses and clinical instructors in Indonesian hospital placements. Drawing on descriptive phenomenological accounts, the analysis shows how hierarchical relations, patient authority, collectivist expectations and gendered professional identities normalised endurance, constrained speaking up and blurred the boundaries between learning, care and vulnerability. Participants described pervasive verbal abuse alongside bullying, dehumanisation, sexual harassment and episodic physical aggression, with cumulative emotional, psychological and professional consequences that eroded safety, dignity and engagement in learning and practice. Coping responses reflected tensions between professional expectations, personal safety and relational harmony, with ambivalent reporting due to limited organisational follow-through. These findings address an important gap in understanding how workplace violence may become culturally and organisationally sustained within clinical education, rather than merely occurring as isolated interpersonal events. By conceptualising workplace violence as a sustained cultural-organisational climate rather than a set of discrete events, this paper contributes to critical nursing inquiry and highlights the need to examine education and practice settings together when addressing safety, supervision and justice in clinical learning environments.

PMID:42542953 | DOI:10.1111/nin.70154