Prevalence & Predicting Factors of Workplace Violence Against Emergency Department Healthcare Workers in Public Hospitals in Addis Ababa: A Cross-sectional Study
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Date
2021-11
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background
Workplace violence is a pervasive problem among the healthcare sector worldwide and the
Emergency department is one of the highest affected settings. Workplace violence (WPV) not only
affects the performance of healthcare providers, but also leads to acute and chronic physical and
psychological consequences which could lead to burnout, decreased work satisfaction, and the
decision to leave the profession. There are few studies published that were done in different settings
in Ethiopia that explored the prevalence of WPV but none was done in hospitals in Addis Ababa.
Objective
The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence and predicting factors of workplace
violence against healthcare workers practicing at various levels of hospitals in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
Methods
A prospective cross-sectional study was performed at three selected public hospitals in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data regarding
sociodemographic information, exposure to physical, psychological violence, and sexual harassment.
Data were entered using SPSS Version 26 for coding and analysis. Summary statistics, descriptive
statistics, chi-square, and Fisher’s Exact tests, and binary logistic regression were used to analyze
independent variables’ association with workplace violence among ED staff.
Results
A total of 161 participants were included in the study. The 12-month prevalence of workplace
violence was 80.7%. Of the 161 participants, 45% were physically attacked, 73% were verbally
attacked and 19.3% experienced sexual harassment. Being an emergency resident was found to have
a statistically significant association with exposure to WPV. Regarding the specific types of WPV,
sexual harassment was found to be associated with gender and working outside regular hours.
Consequences to victims of workplace violence were both physical and psychological and included
injuries that required formal treatment, time is taken off work, and symptoms of anxiety, alertness,
and avoidance of thinking of the incident.
Conclusion
There is a significantly high prevalence of WPV among emergency healthcare workers. There is a
pattern of low reporting of incidents. Efforts need to be made towards making reporting procedures
available and accessible to emergency healthcare workers.
Description
Keywords
Workplace violence, Emergency Department, Healthcare workers