Violence among Female Health Care Workers

Abstract

Introduction: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at risk for workplace violence(WPV). It is a serious problem in both developed and developing countries andhas a great negative impact on the well-being of HCWs and on the quality of thehealth system. Aim of Work: To determine the prevalence, pattern, associatedfactors and impacts of WPV among female HCWs at Al-Zahraa UniversityHospital and to detect the causes and seek out suggestions to prevent suchincident. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted over4 months from September to December 2019 at Al-Zahraa University Hospitalusing a standardized questionnaire. The sample size was 312 physicians andnurses. Results: The prevalence of violence was 66.3% among the studiedHCWs with statistically significant higher prevalence among nurses (72.5%)than physicians (61.9%). Verbal violence was the most recurrent type (62.3%)followed by the physical type (19.8%). Patient relatives and friends were themost frequent perpetrators (63.3%). Emergency room was the most commonplace for violence (42.5%). Violent incidents result in physical, psychologicalimpacts and job dissatisfaction. There was significant association of violencewith the marital status and the work shift (p value <0.05) with no significantassociation of violence with age, occupation and duration of employments(p value >0.05). Low socioeconomic status of patients, shortage of medicalequipment and medicine and inadequate security were the most frequentlysuggested causes of violence. Conclusion and Recommendations: WPVis highly prevalent among the studied HCWs particularly the verbal one andresulted in physical, psychological and work related effects; that highlightsthe need to develop management strategy to overcome WPV against HCWs.Provision of medical equipment, medicine, security measures, legislationand to restrict public access to examination rooms were the most frequentlysuggested preventive measures.