The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effect of social support and its relationship between workplace violence and depression in nurses.

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study that included 128 registered nurses who had worked at medical institutions, except those who experienced depression without workplace violence in Korea. The data were collected between July and August 2020 using online surveys. The mediating effect was performed using multiple hierarchical regression.

The rate of workplace violence was 82.8% (n=106). According to the type of workplace violence, the rates of verbal violence, physical threat, and physical violence were 79.7%, 67.2%, and 33.6%, respectively. A positive correlation between workplace violence and depression was found (r=.30, p<.001), whereas social support showed negative correlations with workplace violence (r=−.18, p=.045) and depression (r=−.26, p=003). This study found a partial mediating effect between workplace violence and depression.

It is important to develop strategies to improve the social support of nurses who experienced workplace violence and effectively prevent and manage depression.