Background Violence and abuse in healthcare settings is a growing concern. Staff are more likely to experience violence initiated by patients and the public than by their own colleagues. General practice may be more exposed to such behaviours than hospitals. Such experiences can negatively impact staff wellbeing, job satisfaction and turnover intention. It is important to better understand the extent and the nature of these experiences as well as possible preventive and support strategies in order to reduce their occurrence and impact. Though evidence on workplace violence in healthcare settings has been synthesised, the majority of reviews focus on hospitals and rarely consider primary care, in particular, general practice. In addition, these reviews have not focused on patient or public-initiated violence towards staff. This scoping review addresses these research gaps.

Objectives The aim of the scoping review is to synthesise evidence on:

1. The extent, characteristics and impact of violence and abuse towards staff in general practice as initiated by patients and the public.

2. Practices in violence prevention and associated staff support in general practice

Methods This review follows the Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review guidelines. The protocol was registered on Open Science Framework on 21st August 2023. Five bibliographic databases, one grey literature source, Google, and Google Scholar were searched in September 2023. Primary studies in any language were included. Citation screening involved two reviewers working independently. Data are currently being charted.

Results The search yielded 35,822 citations, 16,303 of which were duplicates. Of the remaining 19,519 citations, 61 studies met the inclusion criteria. Preliminary findings are that 42 studies reported the rate of staff experience of violence and abuse by patients or the public. Some of these studies include staff from various settings, not exclusive to general practice. One study analysed reports in print media. Nine studies reported correlates and impacts of this type of violence. Seven qualitative and two mixed methods studies explored staff perspectives.

Conclusions Current research primarily focuses on the extent of this issue. Further research on risk factors, impacts and possible preventative and support strategies is needed.