Workplace Harassment and Depression in Mental Health Nurses: A National Survey from Cyprus

Abstract

Background: Workplace harassment constitutes a significant occupational hazard in many industries including the healthcare sector. The aim of our study was to evaluate workplace harassment and explore its potential association with depressive symptoms among mental health nurses. Methodology:A national survey among mental health nurses was conducted in Cyprus using three international validated questionnaires; namely the Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror (LIPT), evaluating "mobbing" in the workplace, the Center for Epidemiological Studies in Depression (CES-D) Scale, and a specifically designed, questionnaire for the collection of the demographic data of the participants. The data were analyzed with the statistical package SPSS 20.Results: Among 402 mental health nurses in Cyprus, 255 completed the survey (response rate 62.9%) with a slight majority being women (55.7%). The prevalence of workplace harassment (mobbing) was 8.2%. In addition, about one in ten nurses (11.0%) reported depressive symptoms based on the CES-D scale. Using multi-variable adjusted logistic regression models (adjusted for age, gender, marital status, educational level, professional ranking, and years of experience), we found that mental health nurses who reported workplace harassment were 5.2 times more likely to have depressive symptoms compared to their colleagues who did not experience workplace harassment. Conclusion:Workplace harassment as well as depressive symptomatology is quite prevalent among mental health nurses in Cyprus. Workplace harassment was also significantly associated with depressive symptoms among mental health nurses. Further qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the above association is warranted.

Identification of Workplace Bullying: Reliability and Validity of Indonesian Version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R)

“…This study is somewhat similar to a previous study that reported that 10.6% of victims were bullied rarely, while 0.5% were bullied on a daily basis [3]. In addition, a European study reported that 4.1% of participants reported exposure to bullying or harassment at work [81]. Moreover, a prospective follow-up study regarding self-labeled workplace bullying cited that 6.1% of employees reported being bullying now and then, and 1.4% experienced bullying at work on a daily to monthly basis [71].…”