Abstract
Introduction
The emergency department is the most affected by physical and verbal abuse and bullying
in health care. Violence against health care workers not only affects their safety,
but also their performance and motivation. This study aimed to determine the prevalence
and associated determinants of violence against health care personnel.
Methods
A cross-sectional study design was used with 182 health care personnel at the emergency
department tertiary care hospital of Karachi, Pakistan. Data were collected through
a questionnaire comprised of 2 sections: (1) demographic questions and (2) statements
to identify the prevalence of workplace violence and bullying among health care personnel.
Nonprobability purposive sampling was used for recruitment. Binary logistic regression
was used to identify the prevalence and determinants of violence and bullying.
Results
Most participants were younger than 40 years of age (n = 106, 58.2%). Participants were mainly nurses (n = 105, 57.7%) and physicians (n = 31, 17.0%). Participants reported experiencing sexual abuse (n = 5, 2.7%), physical violence (n = 30, 16.50%), verbal abuse (n = 107, 58.8%), and bullying (n = 49, 26.9%). The odds of experiencing physical violence were 3.7 times greater (confidence
interval = 1.6-9.2) when there was not a procedure for reporting workplace violence
compared to when there was a procedure.
Discussion
Attention is required to identify the prevalence of workplace violence. Creating effective
policies and procedures for a reporting system would potentially lead to lowering
violence rates and positively impacting health care workers’ well-being.
Key words
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Biography
Pardeep Kumar, MScN student, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
Biography
Uzma Rahim Khan is an Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
Biography
Salman Muhammad Soomar is an Instructor (Research), Department of Emergency Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
Biography
Zohra Jetha is a Senior Instructor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
Biography
Tazeen Saeed Ali is a Professor and Assistant Dean, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 10, 2023
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
