Aims To investigate workplace violence and nurse outcomes by comparing gender differences.

Design A secondary analysis of cross‐sectional survey data.

Methods Workplace violence was measured by four items from the International Hospital Outcome Study. Nurse outcomes were measured by tools including burnout, job satisfaction and intention to stay. We used propensity score matching to generate a sociodemographic balanced dataset of 108 male and 288 female nurses. A hypothetical relationship model was derived from the affective events theory. Comparative statistics and multi‐group structural equation modelling were conducted to analyze gender differences. Data were collected in China from December 2013 – August 2014.

Results Male nurses reported more workplace violence from staff and less intention to stay than females. Besides finding the mediation of burnout sharing with female nurses consistent with the affective events theory, workplace violence was directly linked to less intention to stay in male nurses.

Conclusion Male nurses experience more workplace violence by staff than female nurses. Besides responding emotionally to workplace violence like female nurses, male nurses also respond behaviourally.