Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Sep 14;6(9):e04800.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04800. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Work place violence (WPV) against healthcare workers in Africa: A systematic review

Stanley Njaka  1   2 , Oswald C Edeogu  2 , Constance Chioma Oko  1   2 , Mohammad Dauda Goni  1 , Ndidi Nkadi  2
Affiliations
Review

Work place violence (WPV) against healthcare workers in Africa: A systematic review

Stanley Njaka et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Background: WPV amongst healthcare workers has been reported as a public health challenge across the countries of the world, with more in the developing countries where condition of care and service is very poor.

Objectives: We aimed to systematically produce empirical evidence on the WPV against health care workers in Africa through the review of relevant literature.

Method: We sourced for evidence through the following databases: PubMed, Science direct and Scopus from 30th November to 31st December 2019 as well as the reference list of the studies included. A total of 22 peer reviewed articles were included in the review (8065 respondents). Quality appraisal of the included studies was assessed using critical appraisal tools for cross-sectional studies.

Result: Across the studies, diverse but high prevalence of WPV ranging from 9% to 100% was reported with the highest in South Africa (54%-100%) and Egypt (59.7%-86.1%). The common types were verbal, physical, sexual harassment and psychological violence. The correlates of WPV reported were gender, age, shift duty, emergency unit, psychiatric unit, nursing, marital status and others. Various impacts were reported including psychological impacts and desire to quit nursing. Patients and their relatives, the coworkers and supervisors were the mostly reported perpetrators of violence. Doctors were mostly implicated in the sexual violence against nurses. Policy on violence and management strategies were non-existent across the studies.

Conclusion: High prevalence of WPV against healthcare workers exists in Africa but there is still paucity of research on the subject matter. However, urgent measures like policy formulation and others must be taken to address the WPV as to avert the impact on the healthcare system.

Keywords: Clinical psychology; Clinical research; Emergency medicine; Health; Health profession; Healthcare workers; Musculoskeletal system; Public health; Violence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Screening flowchart of how the articles were examined for inclusion.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abbas M.A., Fiala L.A., Abdel Rahman A.G., Fahim A.E. Epidemiology of workplace violence against nursing staff in Ismailia Governorate, Egypt. J. Egypt. Publ. Health Assoc. 2010;85(1–2):29–43. - PubMed
    1. Abdellah R.F., Salama K.M. Prevalence and risk factors of workplace violence against health care workers in emergency department in Ismailia, Egypt. Pan African Medical Journal. 2017;26:1–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abodunrin O.L., Adeoye A.O., Adeomi A.A., Akande A.A. Prevalence and forms of violence against health care professionals in a South-Western city, Nigeria. Sky Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences. 2014;2(8):67–72. http://www.skyjournals.org/SJMMS Retrieved from.
    1. Abou-ElWafa H.S., El-Gilany A.H., Abd-El-Raouf S.E., Abd-Elmouty S.M., El-Sayed Hassan El-Sayed R. Workplace violence against emergency versus non-emergency nurses in mansoura university hospitals, Egypt. J. Interpers Violence. 2015;30(5):857–872. - PubMed
    1. Akanni O.O., Osundina A.F., Olotu S.O., Agbonile I.O., Otakpor A.N., Fela-thomas A.L. 2019. Prevalence , Factors , and Outcome of Physical Violence against Mental Health Professionals at a Nigerian Psychiatric Hospital; pp. 15–19. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources