Working in labor and delivery unit increases the odds of work place violence in Amhara region referral hospitals: Cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Workplace violence is any act of negative behavior that causes, physically and psychologically harm to health professionals face in the workplace. The prevalence of workplace violence becomes a challenging occupational issue with increasing nature worldwide. In spite of the seriousness and the impact of the problem, little is known about its magnitude and determinants in the study area and even in Ethiopia. Objective The study aimed to assess the magnitude of workplace violence and its associated factors among health care providers working for the last one year at Obstetrics and gynecology department in Amhara Regional State Referral Hospitals, Ethiopia 2019. Methods Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from October 1st to 30th, 2019. 503 study participants were incorporated in the study. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were entered into EPI info version 7.2.3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Binary Logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with workplace violence considering the association to be significant p- value <0.05. Result This study revealed that 44.5%of the health care providers had reported workplace violence (95% CI: 40.2–48.7). Of this majority of the Victims were experienced a verbal type of violence 200 (88.1%), followed by physical 14 (6.2%), sexual 11 (4.8%), and racial two (0.8%). Factors of workplace violence in this research with statically significant, were: working in labor ward (AOR = 7.4,95% CI: 2.9–18.7), Female sex of participant (AOR = 2.4, 95% CI:1.4–4), work experience less than 5 years(AOR 8.5, 95%CI:7.3–33.3) and numbers of staff less than5 in a shift (AOR = 5.3 95% CI:3.8–39.8) and 5–10 staff in a shift (AOR = 3.3, 95% CI:2.7–25). Conclusion and recommendations The prevalence of workplace violence among obstetrics and gynecology department health professionals in Amhara regional state referral hospitals was high. Developing an incident resolution protocol and legislations to encourage health professionals to prompt report violent acts and judicial punishment of perpetrators will be useful to combat workplace violence at obstetrics and gynecology department.

Workplace violence and its associated factors among nurses working in university teaching hospitals in Southern Ethiopia: a mixed approach

“…Similarly, those who had 6-10 staff nurses were 2.1 times more likely to experience workplace violence compared to those who had 11 or more. This finding is aligned with the results of a study conducted in Amhara, Ethiopia (32). This might be due to dissatisfaction with client care and treatment due to an overloading patient-to-nurse imbalance.…”

The growing burden of workplace violence against healthcare workers: trends in prevalence, risk factors, consequences, and prevention – a narrative review

“…A number of studies report a reduction in quality of care and an increased risk of medical errors resulting from WPV. 17 , 30 , 57 , 59 , 60 , 65 Alhamad et al. 61 in a survey of physicians in Jordan, reported 72% of respondents felt their job performance was affected by WPV.…”

Associations between work-related variables and workplace violence among Chinese medical staff: A comparison between physical and verbal violence

“…Due to the importance of WPV, several studies had been conducted to explore the factors associated with WPV against medical staff, and several associated factors were identified, such as social-demographic (12,13), psychological and physical health (9,(14)(15)(16)(17)(18), and work-related variables (19)(20)(21)(22). For work-related variables, most of these studies focused on the association between work stress, work burnout, social support, work environment, and WPV (19)(20)(21)(22).…”