Objective Workplace violence is known to be an important psychosocial hazard in health care settings. While it is expected that the levels of organisational concerns and preventative efforts should be essential in determining the occurrence of workplace violence and workers’ health, little empirical research has been conducted to explore their associations. This study was conducted to examine the associations among organisation-level psychosocial safety climate (PSC), experiences of workplace violence and self-rated health among nurses.

Methods This study was a cross- sectional survey of 1690 female nurses from 73 hospitals in Taiwan. A standardised self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information regarding nurses’ experiences of workplace violence over the past 1 year, psychosocial work conditions including job demands and job control as well as self-rated health. Organisation-level PSC was assessed by a 12-item scale and multilevel analyses were applied to examine the associations among PSC, workplace violence experience and self-rated health.

Findings The 1-year prevalence rates of workplace violence were 62.6% for verbal violence, 33.6% for psychological violence, 28.6% for physical violence and 14.4% for sexual harassment. With adjustment of seniority and work characteristics, nurses who had experienced workplace violence reported higher risks for poor self-rated health. Nurses who were employed in hospitals with lower organisational-level PSC were found to have higher risk of workplace violence. When further adjusted for the experience of workplace violence, lower PSC was associated with increased risks for poor self-rated health.

Conclusion Findings from this study suggested that organisational concerns and efforts might play an important role in determining the occurrence of workplace violence and associated health risks among workers. Occupational health professionals and practitioners should incorporate organisation-level determinants of health from an ecological perspective when designing workplace health promotion programs targeting on workplace violence and other psychosocial work hazards.