Testing the Feasibility of a Smartphone Application for Collecting Data on Occupational Violence Exposure Among Nurses and Midwives
- 1Queensland University of Technology
Abstract
BackgroundNurses are disproportionately affected by occupational violence, yet conventional incident reporting and retrospective surveys underestimate its extent and miss its context. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) offers a way to capture violence in near-real time.
AimTo evaluate the feasibility of a smartphone EMA application for capturing the incidence, characteristics, and reporting of occupational violence among hospital nurses and midwives.
MethodsIn a prospective, single-site feasibility study at a large public hospital, nurses and midwives used a commercially available EMA application (MetricWire) to report occupational violence in two-hourly blocks across their shifts over a three-week period. Incidence, incident characteristics, reporting, and usability were analysed descriptively.
FindingsOf 108 enrolled participants, 69 contributed 607 momentary assessments, recording 111 incidents. Violence was reported in 18.6% of assessments, and 62% of participants reported at least one incident. Most incidents were verbal (69%) and patient-perpetrated (86%); 59% involved witnessing violence against a colleague. Although 57% of incidents were reported to someone, only 6% reached the formal incident management system. Respondents (n = 16) found the application easy to use and acceptable.
ConclusionSmartphone-based EMA feasibly and acceptably captures contextually rich, near-real-time data on occupational violence, including the witnessed exposure and under-reporting that conventional systems miss.
Summary of RelevanceO_ST_ABSProblem or Issue.C_ST_ABSNurses experience high rates of occupational violence, but conventional incident reporting and retrospective surveys under-capture it and miss its timing, context, and the violence nurses witness against colleagues.
What is Already Known.Occupational violence against nurses is common and harmful. Existing measurement approaches are limited by underreporting and recall bias, and rarely capture incidents in real time or distinguish direct from witnessed exposure.
What this Paper Adds.A smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment application can feasibly and acceptably capture near-real-time, contextually rich data on occupational violence among nurses and midwives. It revealed substantial witnessed exposure (59% of incidents) and a striking gap between incidents reported informally (57%) and those entered into the formal incident-management system (6%).
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BibTeX
@misc{duff2026testing,
title = {{Testing the Feasibility of a Smartphone Application for Collecting Data on Occupational Violence Exposure Among Nurses and Midwives}},
author = {J. Duff and M. Chataway and G. Xu and A. Fox and S. Johnston},
howpublished = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.14.26363061},
url = {https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.14.26363061v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Testing the Feasibility of a Smartphone Application for Collecting Data on Occupational Violence Exposure Among Nurses and Midwives
AU - J. Duff
AU - M. Chataway
AU - G. Xu
AU - A. Fox
AU - S. Johnston
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/14
PB - medRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.14.26363061
UR - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.14.26363061v1
AB - BackgroundNurses are disproportionately affected by occupational violence, yet conventional incident reporting and retrospective surveys underestimate its extent and miss its context. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) offers a way to capture violence in near-real time. AimTo evaluate the feasibility of a smartphone EMA application for capturing the incidence, characteristics, and reporting of occupational violence among hospital nurses and midwives. MethodsIn a prospective, single-site feasibility study at a large public hospital, nurses and midwives used a commercially available EMA application (MetricWire) to report occupational violence in two-hourly blocks across their shifts over a three-week period. Incidence, incident characteristics, reporting, and usability were analysed descriptively. FindingsOf 108 enrolled participants, 69 contributed 607 momentary assessments, recording 111 incidents. Violence was reported in 18.6% of assessments, and 62% of participants reported at least one incident. Most incidents were verbal (69%) and patient-perpetrated (86%); 59% involved witnessing violence against a colleague. Although 57% of incidents were reported to someone, only 6% reached the formal incident management system. Respondents (n = 16) found the application easy to use and acceptable. ConclusionSmartphone-based EMA feasibly and acceptably captures contextually rich, near-real-time data on occupational violence, including the witnessed exposure and under-reporting that conventional systems miss. Summary of RelevanceO_ST_ABSProblem or Issue.C_ST_ABSNurses experience high rates of occupational violence, but conventional incident reporting and retrospective surveys under-capture it and miss its timing, context, and the violence nurses witness against colleagues. What is Already Known.Occupational violence against nurses is common and harmful. Existing measurement approaches are limited by underreporting and recall bias, and rarely capture incidents in real time or distinguish direct from witnessed exposure. What this Paper Adds.A smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment application can feasibly and acceptably capture near-real-time, contextually rich data on occupational violence among nurses and midwives. It revealed substantial witnessed exposure (59% of incidents) and a striking gap between incidents reported informally (57%) and those entered into the formal incident-management system (6%).
ER -