Concern about Workplace Violence and Its Risk Factors in Chinese Township Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Workplace violence in Chinese township hospitals is a major public health problem. We identified the risk factors of healthcare workers’ worry about experiencing workplace violence in 90 Chinese township hospitals and determined specific measures for differing stages of violence (based on crisis management theory). Participants were 440 general practitioners and 398 general nurses from Heilongjiang Province, China (response rate 84.6%). One hundred and six (12.6%) respondents reported being physically attacked in their workplace in the previous 12 months. Regarding psychological violence, the most common type reported was verbal abuse (46.0%). While most (85.2%) respondents had some degree of worry about suffering violence, 22.1% were worried or very worried. Ordinal regression analysis revealed that being ≤35 years of age, having a lower educational level, having less work experience, and working night shifts were all associated with worry about workplace violence. Furthermore, those without experience of such violence were more likely to worry about it. Respondents’ suggested measures for controlling violence included “widening channels on medical dispute solutions,” “improving doctor-patient communication,” and “advocating for respect for medical workers via the media.” Results suggest the target factors for reducing healthcare workers’ worry by according to the type of education and training and possible measures for limiting workplace violence in township hospitals.

Doctor becomes a patient: a qualitative study of health care work place violence related perception among junior doctors working in a teaching hospital in India

“…Other serious consequences for HCPs are increased occupational strain, need for medical treatment, lost workdays and absenteeism, employment termination or turnover, disability and even death. 22 Consequences for patients and society have also been reported in the previous studies. Reduced work performance, motivation and morale, and creativity can crucially influence the effectiveness of health systems as a whole, especially in the developing countries whereby further deteriorated quality of care leads to adverse patient outcomes.…”

“…15 A good number of previous publications have mentioned the consequences of HCWPV which is coming up as a new occupational health hazard and has significant long-lasting effect on HCPs. 1,3,11,13,[22][23][24][25][26] Some of these are lower morale, anger, loss of confidence, burnout, time off work, disability and change in job status etc. 44 Each incident affects a number of staff members.…”

“…22,24,26 There is a circular relationship between psychological stress and HCWPV; violence causes anxiety and stress; anxious and stressed HCPs are prone to exposure to violence. [22][23][24] Fear, anxiety and agony undoubtedly have profound physical mental and social consequences as these can impair victims' quality of life, influence their job performance, affect patient safety, and lead to changes in immune system functioning. Other serious consequences for HCPs are increased occupational strain, need for medical treatment, lost workdays and absenteeism, employment termination or turnover, disability and even death.…”

“…[10][11][12][13][14][15] Considerably greater number of recent research studies on HCWPV belongs to China. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] In other parts of the world also, several studies have been conducted. [31][32][33][34][35][36][37] By means of their all India surveys, Indian Medical Association (IMA) have reported that 75% doctors had experienced violence and 82.7% felt stressed out.…”

Study of workplace violence, its risk factors and perceptions about workplace security in doctors of Paithan

“…Similar findings were observed by Kitaneh et al in their study in Palestine and Xing et al in their study about WPV in nurses. 12,13 The WPV was also found to be significantly more in highly educated doctors (p=0.0012) and in doctors having in-patient department in their hospitals (p=0.0135). This may suggest that the doctors working in the in-patient department or the specialist doctors, who work in high risk environment due to handling of serious patients, faced more workplace violence.…”