Background With the continuous development of the healthcare industry, healthcare workers face increasing pressure, including long-term shift work and workplace violence from patients or their relatives. This not only affects the physical and mental health of healthcare workers but may also negatively impact the quality of patient care and the efficiency of medical services.

Objectives To analyze the pathways through which shift work and workplace violence affect healthcare workers' self-rated health and depression symptoms, explore potential mediating role of job burnout, and conduct subgroup analyses to reveal differences among various groups.

Methods Data were collected from 3706 frontline healthcare workers across 23 provinces from January 10 to February 5, 2019, using a snowball sampling method. The survey included basic demographic information, self-rated health, depression symptoms assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), workplace violence experience assessed using the Workplace Violence Scale), and job burnout (assessed using the Chinese Maslach Burnout Inventory). Data were analyzed using logistic regression, structural equation modeling (for mediating effects), and subgroup analysis to examine the impacts of shift work and workplace violence on health and depression symptoms.

Results Among the subjects, 2700 workers (73.29%) reported shift work experience, 2079 workers (56.43%) experienced workplace violence, 633 workers (17.18%) reported poor self-rated health, and 687 workers (18.65%) reported depression symptoms. Shift work was associated with self-rated health (OR=0.572, 95%CI: 0.461, 0.710) and depression symptoms (OR=1.519, 95%CI: 1.190, 1.938), while workplace violence also associated with self-rated health (OR=0.566, 95%CI: 0.471, 0.681) and depression symptoms (OR=2.096, 95%CI: 1.740, 2.525). Job burnout significantly mediated the effects of shift work and workplace violence on self-rated health (indirect effects: −0.023, −0.027) and depression symptoms (indirect effects: 0.032, 0.037) (all P < 0.001). The subgroup analysis revealed that age, marital status, physical exercise, smoking, and alcohol consumption influenced the impacts of shift work and workplace violence on health.

Conclusion Shift work and workplace violence significantly affect healthcare workers' self-rated health and depression symptoms, with job burnout playing a key mediating role in this process. This suggests that healthcare institutions should improve resource allocation, provide flexible scheduling systems, ensure adequate rest time, and increase psychological support and safety measures to help healthcare workers better cope with work-related stress and violence.