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. 2019 Apr 3:31:8.
doi: 10.1186/s40557-019-0288-6. eCollection 2019.

Violence at work: determinants & prevalence among health care workers, northwest Ethiopia: an institutional based cross sectional study

Dawit Getachew Yenealem  1 , Manay Kifle Woldegebriel  2 , Ararso Tafese Olana  3 , Tesfaye Hambisa Mekonnen  1
Affiliations

Violence at work: determinants & prevalence among health care workers, northwest Ethiopia: an institutional based cross sectional study

Dawit Getachew Yenealem et al. Ann Occup Environ Med. .

Abstract

Background: Workplace violence is the intentional use of power, threatened or actual, against another person or against a group, in work-related circumstances, that either results in or has a high degree of likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal development, or deprivation. The aim of this study is to assess magnitude and predictors of workplace violence among healthcare workers in health facilities of Gondar city.

Methods: Institutional based cross sectional study design was employed to conduct this study. The study conducted in Gondar town from February 21 to march 21, 2016. Five hundred fifty three health care workers selected from health facilities of Gondar City administration. A stratified sampling technique was used for selecting the study subjects through simple random sampling. Data was collected by structured self administered questionnaire which is adapted from ILO/ICN/WHO/PSI after it is pretested & prepared in Amharic. The data was coded and entered in to EPI info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 software for analysis. The degree of association for variables was assessed using odds ratios with 95% confidence interval and p-value ≤0.05.

Results: The prevalence of workplace violence was found to be 58.2% with [95% confidence interval (CI): (53.7, 62.3)] in which verbal abuse 282(53.1%) followed by physical attack 117(22.0%) and 38(7.2%) sexual harassment. Working at emergency departments [AOR = 3.99,95% CI:(1.49,10.73)], working at shifts [AOR = 1.98,95%, CI: (1.28,3.03)],short experiences [AOR = 3.09,95% CI: (1.20,7.98)], being nurse or midwife [AOR = 4.06, 95% CI: (1.20,13.74)] were positively associated with workplace violence. The main sources of violence are visitors/patient relatives followed by colleagues and patients.

Conclusion: workplace violence is major public health problem across health facilities and the Ministry of Health should incorporate interventions in its different health sector development & management safety initiative.

Keywords: Gondar; Health care workers; Health facilities; Workplace violence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethical clearance was obtained from institutional review board (IRB) of University of Gondar. Formal letter of cooperation was presented to respective governmental & private health facilities. Each respondent were informed about the objective of the study, how the result will contribute for employers & government in shaping policies concerning workplace violence. Respondent were involved after they give informed consent. Confidentiality of the data was maintained and respected. They also informed that all data collected kept confidentially just for only the purpose of study.Not applicable.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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