Fighting violence against health workers: a way to improve quality of care?

Work place violence (WPV) against healthcare workers in Africa: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

WPV amongst healthcare workers has been reported as a public health challenge across the countries of the world, with more in the developing countries where condition of care and service is very poor.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to systematically produce empirical evidence on the WPV against health care workers in Africa through the review of relevant literature.

METHOD

We sourced for evidence through the following databases: PubMed, Science direct and Scopus from 30th November to 31st December 2019 as well as the reference list of the studies included. A total of 22 peer reviewed articles were included in the review (8065 respondents). Quality appraisal of the included studies was assessed using critical appraisal tools for cross-sectional studies.

RESULT

Across the studies, diverse but high prevalence of WPV ranging from 9% to 100% was reported with the highest in South Africa (54%-100%) and Egypt (59.7%-86.1%). The common types were verbal, physical, sexual harassment and psychological violence. The correlates of WPV reported were gender, age, shift duty, emergency unit, psychiatric unit, nursing, marital status and others. Various impacts were reported including psychological impacts and desire to quit nursing. Patients and their relatives, the coworkers and supervisors were the mostly reported perpetrators of violence. Doctors were mostly implicated in the sexual violence against nurses. Policy on violence and management strategies were non-existent across the studies.

CONCLUSION

High prevalence of WPV against healthcare workers exists in Africa but there is still paucity of research on the subject matter. However, urgent measures like policy formulation and others must be taken to address the WPV as to avert the impact on the healthcare system.

Workplace violence types in family health, offenders, reactions, and problems experienced

OBJECTIVE

to identify the types of violence that affect the health team in Family Health Units, their offenders, reactions and problems experienced by workers.

METHOD

a cross-sectional, concurrent mixed-type research. The Survey Questionnaire Workplace Violence in the Health Sector was applied to 106 workers from Family Health Units. Of these, 18 answered the semi-structured interview.

RESULTS

verbal aggression (65.1%), bullying (14.2%), racial discrimination (10.4%), physical assault (8.5%) and sexual harassment (4.7%) were prevalent. Patients were the main perpetrators of verbal aggression (79.4%) and bullying (46.7%). Workers responded by telling co-workers and reporting to the boss. Victims remained over-alert, vigilant and tense, relating exposure to violence to absenteeism and the desire to leave the profession.

CONCLUSION

verbal aggression is the most common violence with negative impact on workers' health and work performed.

Mental health nurses' perspective of workplace violence in Jordanian mental health hospitals

PURPOSE

The purpose was to assess the mental health nurses' perspectives of workplace violence in mental health departments in Jordan.

DESIGN AND METHODS

A cross-sectional correlation study was utilized to address the study's purposes. Data were collected using self-reported questionnaires from nurses working in governmental mental health departments in Jordan.

FINDINGS

The findings indicated that 80% of the respondents were victims of at least one violent act in the last 2 years. Verbal abuse was the most indicated type of violence. Patients were considered the main source of violence.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Policies and legislations addressing workplace violence should be implemented, and nurses should be trained on using such policies. Hospital managers should create a safe work environment by enforcing effective security measures and maintaining adequate staffing.

Incidence, Type, Related Factors, and Effect of Workplace Violence on Mental Health Nurses: A Cross-sectional Survey

OBJECTIVE

Workplace violence and its impact on mental health nurses have yet to be thoroughly explored in China. This study aims to investigate the incidence, type, related factors, and effects of workplace violence on mental health nurses as well as identifying coping strategies.

METHODS

A researcher - designed workplace violence questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey were distributed to nurses at a mental health hospital in Wuhan, China.

RESULTS

Most nurses reported a high incidence of workplace violence (94.6%) in the past year ranging from verbal aggression, sexual harassment, to physical attack. The forms of violence significantly correlated with each other (r>0.5, p=0.000). Working on the psychiatric intensive care unit for adult males and being a male nurse placed nurses at significantly higher risk for workplace violence. Providing routine treatment, caring for male patients, and working the night shift increased the risk of sexual harassment. Nurses who believed that workplace violence was preventable experienced a significantly lower incidence of violence. Burnout levels of the mental health nurses were relatively mild, but increased with age, professional title, years of employment and frequency of workplace violence.

CONCLUSION

The incidence of workplace violence among mental health nurses is common, and its frequency is correlated with nurses' level of burnout. Management and clinical nurses should work together on an organization-wide strategy targeting the major identified risk areas to reduce the incidence of workplace violence and minimize its impact on nurses.