Ann Occup Environ Med.  2019 ;31(1):8. 10.1186/s40557-019-0288-6.

Violence at work: determinants & prevalence among health care workers, northwest Ethiopia: an institutional based cross sectional study

• Yenealem D
• Woldegebriel MK
• Olana AT
• Mekonnen T

• KMID: 2466044
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1186/s40557-019-0288-6

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Workplace violence is the intentional use of power, threatened or actual, against another person or against a group, in work-related circumstances, that either results in or has a high degree of likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal development, or deprivation. The aim of this study is to assess magnitude and predictors of workplace violence among healthcare workers in health facilities of Gondar city.
METHODS
Institutional based cross sectional study design was employed to conduct this study. The study conducted in Gondar town from February 21 to march 21, 2016. Five hundred fifty three health care workers selected from health facilities of Gondar City administration. A stratified sampling technique was used for selecting the study subjects through simple random sampling. Data was collected by structured self administered questionnaire which is adapted from ILO/ICN/WHO/PSI after it is pretested & prepared in Amharic. The data was coded and entered in to EPI info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 software for analysis. The degree of association for variables was assessed using odds ratios with 95% confidence interval and p-value ≤0.05.
RESULTS
The prevalence of workplace violence was found to be 58.2% with [95% confidence interval (CI): (53.7, 62.3)] in which verbal abuse 282(53.1%) followed by physical attack 117(22.0%) and 38(7.2%) sexual harassment. Working at emergency departments [AOR"‰="‰3.99,95% CI:(1.49,10.73)], working at shifts [AOR"‰="‰1.98,95%, CI: (1.28,3.03)],short experiences [AOR"‰="‰3.09,95% CI: (1.20,7.98)], being nurse or midwife [AOR"‰="‰4.06, 95% CI: (1.20,13.74)] were positively associated with workplace violence. The main sources of violence are visitors/patient relatives followed by colleagues and patients.
CONCLUSION
workplace violence is major public health problem across health facilities and the Ministry of Health should incorporate interventions in its different health sector development & management safety initiative.

Keyword

Health facilities; Health care workers; Workplace violence; Gondar

MeSH Terms

Delivery of Health Care*
Emergency Service, Hospital
Ethiopia*
Health Facilities
Humans
Midwifery
Odds Ratio
Prevalence*
Public Health
Sexual Harassment
Violence*
Workplace Violence