Background Workplace violence in hospitals is common and underreported. It has adverse effects professionally and personally for victims, and can have a negative effect on the quality of patient care.

Aim To explore Indonesian emergency department (ED) nurses’ experiences of workplace violence.

Method This exploratory qualitative study used five sessions of focus group discussion. The participants were recruited from a referral hospital in a regional area of East Java province, Indonesia, using purposive sampling. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Findings A total of 13 ED nurses participated. Four themes and three sub-themes were identified: (1) Disrupting the rule; (2) Feeling unsafe; (3) Governing the case with the sub-themes mitigating violence, improving reporting flow and receiving follow-up; and (4) Keeping for myself.

Conclusion Managing workplace violence is crucial for the provision of high-quality nursing care in the ED. Hospital management’s commitment to zero tolerance of violence is an important statement of support for nurses. Zero tolerance could be shown by improving safety in the ED, simplifying reporting systems and educating and training staff in responding to incidents, and de-escalation techniques.