scholarly journals Workplace violence in the health sector: An assessment of prevalence and pattern

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
E O Ogboghodo ◽  
O H Okojie

Abstract Background Workplace violence has gained significant attention over the last few decades. Violence against health care workers is a complex and persistent occupational hazard facing the health profession and constitutes almost a quarter of all violence at work. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence and pattern of workplace violence among Healthcare workers in Tertiary Health facilities in Benin - City, Nigeria with a view to making recommendations that will enhance the safety of the healthcare workers and improve patient care. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among healthcare workers in tertiary healthcare facilities in Benin City. Benin City is the capital of Edo State, Nigeria. Edo State is in the South-South geo-political zone of Nigeria and is the country's central gateway to the North, East, and West. Respondents were selected using the stratified sampling technique. Data was collected using a pre-tested structured questionnaire adapted from the International Labour Organization/World Health Organization joint programme on workplace violence in the health sector confidential survey. Data analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS version 22.0 software. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 386 healthcare workers, with a mean age (SD) of 33.9 ± 6.0 years and male: female ratio of 1:1.7 participated in the study. Physical, verbal, sexual and emotional violence were suffered by 285 (73.8%), 267 (69.2%), 133 (34.5%) and 104 (26.9%) respectively in the workplace. Overall, majority, 323 (83.7%) of respondents had experienced workplace violence. Being female, single and nursing profession were significantly associated with workplace violence (p < 0.001). Conclusions The prevalence of workplace violence was high among the studied group. Interventions focusing on the fundamental role of prevention in effectively combating violence at work is recommended. Key messages Violence against health care workers is an occupational hazard facing the health profession and constitutes almost a quarter of all violence at work. Prevalence of workplace violence was high among the studied group. The most common pattern of workplace violence was physical violence.

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 2628
Author(s):  
Durdu Mehmet Biçkes ◽  
Bülent Çizmeci ◽  
Hakan Göver ◽  
Iclal Pomak

Behaviors and attitudes of the people who are in the same setting, such as service beneficiaries, co-workers and the others, have a determining effect on the mood of the people who provide the service. This effect can become either positive or negative depending on the course of action. Positive mood manifests itself as the feeling of happiness, security, appreciation, pride and etc. However, negative mood manifests itself as feeling of sorrow, disappointment, loneliness, stress, anxiety, depression and etc. Such kind of interactions is much more observed in health sector than any other workplaces due to intensive relations between service providers (health workers) and service beneficiaries (patients). So, this sector is the leading one which workplace violence is intensively observed. This study was carried out in order to investigate the effects of workplace violence on the stress, anxiety and depression levels of health care professionals. With this purpose, a survey was performed on the employees who work in a training and research hospital. According to the findings, significant differences were determined between the stress, anxiety and depression levels of health-care workers and the frequency of exposure to violence. In the light of the study findings, some recommendations were proposed to researchers and decision-makers.// // // // // // // // // // // // // // Annotate Highlight // Annotate Highlight


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 844-861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurcan Hamzaoglu ◽  
Burcu Türk

Workplace violence has affected many individuals in recent years, irrespective of age, gender, race, educational level, and sector. We analyzed the responses to the Workplace Violence in the Health Sector Country Case Study Questionnaire, applied online to 447 health care workers who worked in public or private health care institutions in different cities of Turkey. Frequencies, percentages, and a chi-square independence test were used for data analysis through SPSS 18. Of the participants, 37.4% were doctors, 61.3% were midwives-nurses or emergency medical technicians (EMT), and 1.3% worked in units with no direct contact with patients and relatives (such as management and the hospital pharmacy). A total of 36.7% of participants reported exposure to physical violence, and 88.8% reported exposure to verbal abuse at least once during their working lives. Many participants who were victims of physical violence or verbal abuse did not report incidents because they thought it would provide no benefits. Regulations on effective communication training, changes in workplace conditions, and effective implementation of violence prevention procedures may help to reduce the rates of verbal abuse and physical violence in the health care sector. In addition, when managers show support for their employees in the prevention of workplace violence, it may help employees to feel more secure in their workplaces.


Author(s):  
Meike M. Neuwirth ◽  
Frauke Mattner ◽  
Robin Otchwemah

AbstractAdherence observations of health care workers (HCW) revealed deficiencies in the use of recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) among HCW caring in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 wards during the first period of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in a university hospital in Germany. The adherence to wearing surgical face or FFP2-masks and disinfecting hands prior to donning and after doffing the PPE was significantly higher in COVID-19 wards However, there was no total adherence of 100% in COVID-19 wards.


Author(s):  
Sushma I. ◽  
Nivin Simon ◽  
A. J. S. Pravin ◽  
M. K. Padmaprasad ◽  
M. Vijayabharathi ◽  
...  

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background: </strong>Mask induced dermatitis is common among health care workers now because of the obligatory use of facemask for a longer period during COVID-19, the clinical features vary. Very few studies could be conducted due to the COVID induced constraints. Studies regarding reactions to face masks in health workers published to date are limited and hence we decided to do this study. The objective of this study was to find out the clinical presentations of mask induced dermatitis due to long term use of facemask on healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A cross sectional study was conducted among 40 healthcare workers attend our OPD with face mask for 6 months. After getting informed written consent clinical evaluation was made by history and dermatologic examination.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Total 40 health care professionals between the age group of 21-50 years (17 females and 23 males) came to our OPD with complaints of itching and dryness with signs of erythema, scaling, papules for 6 months duration. Out of them, 15 (37.5%) patients had exacerbation of pre-existing dermatoses like atopic dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis, chronic urticaria, acne. 10 patients (25%) had irritant contact dermatitis 7 patients (17.5%) had sweat-induced dermatitis, 4 patients (10%) had dermatitis due to sponge strip at the nasal bridge, 4 patients (10%) had dermatitis due to vehement use of ear loop involving retroauricular region.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> This study showed that wearing face masks results in the development and aggravation of other skin diseases due to various causes. Itch can induce scratching and thus lead to inappropriate use of face masks, which could compromise their function.</p>


Author(s):  
Emad Farouq Khodary ◽  
Abdalrhman Saleh Altamimi ◽  
Haifaa Hassan Alghamdi ◽  
Maryam Mohammad Alshehri ◽  
Saud Jabr Almehmadi ◽  
...  

Background: Most of the persons thought that nosocomial infection is spread from the hands of health care workers. The main aim of hand washing is to be aware for all to know that this is a myth that nosocomial infection is spread from hand.  Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Eradah Complex in Jeddah. The Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) has accredited Eradah Complex for Mental Health- Jeddah, as a training center for addiction medicine fellowship program. An observation is done by providing a Google form to the health care workers of the Eradah complex in Jeddah.  This is to observe the views of the health care workers on the issue of practices of hand hygiene. Results: There were a total of 178 study participants (111 male and 67 participants). Age groups demonstrate that 34.27% of participants belong to the age group of 36 to 45 years. 32.02% of the participants belong to the age group of 26 to 35 years of age group. Moreover, the graph has shown that 14.04% of participants belong to the age group of 18 to 25 years. It has been seen that the number of female workers bearing the position of Nurse is less than those of males. It is important to have more respondents being nurses as the nurses usually communicate directly with the patients. There is a doctor too, but they are less interaction directly with the patient. Therefore, overall graph shows that only 6.18% participants prefer other professions whereas among other percentages, 7.30% participants are pharmacists, 25.28% people are nurses, and 18.54% participants are doctors. Conclusion: The present study has discussed that maintenance of hand hygiene in the hospitals and clinics are of sheer importance. The research methodology that is incorporated in the present study has been helpful for the researchers in understanding the perception of the healthcare workers what they think about the aspect of washing hands primarily after the pandemic. Therefore, it has been seen that most of the participative healthcare workers primarily males do not find the aspect hand hygiene much important and so they rarely use soap for hand wash. On the contrary, the female workers understand the importance of hand wash more and thus, they support the thought of hand hygiene at the workplace.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edith Kamaru Kwobah ◽  
Ann Mwangi ◽  
Kirtika Patel ◽  
Thomas Mwogi ◽  
Robert Kiptoo ◽  
...  

Background: Healthcare workers responding to the Corona Virus Pandemic (COVID-19) are at risk of mental illness. Data is scanty on the burden of mental disorders among Kenyan healthcare workers responding to the pandemic that can inform mental health and psychosocial support. The purpose of this study was to establish the frequency and associated factors of worry, generalized anxiety disorder, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder and poor quality of sleep among Kenyan health care workers at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: We conducted an online survey among 1,259 health care workers in Kenya. A researcher developed social demographic questionnaire and several standardized tools were used for data collection. Standardized tools were programmed into Redcap, (Research Electronic Data Capture) and data analysis was performed using R Core Team. In all analysis a p-value &lt; 0.05 was considered significant.Results: 66% of the participants reported experiencing worry related to COVID-19. 32.1% had depression, 36% had generalized anxiety, 24.2% had insomnia and 64.7% scored positively for probable Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Depression was higher among females compared to men (36.5 vs. 26.9%, p = 0.003), workers &lt;35 years old compared to older ones (38.1 vs. 26.4%, p &lt; 0.001), and those who were not married compared to those who were married (40.6 vs. 27.6%, p &lt; 0.001). Generalized anxiety was commoner among workers aged &lt;35 years (43.5 vs. 29.3%, p &lt; 0.001), females (41.7 vs. 29.2%, p &lt; 0.001), those who mere not married compared to the married (45.2 vs. 31.2%, p &lt; 0.001) and those with &lt;10 years working experience (41.6 to 20.5%, p &lt; 0.001). Younger health care professional had a higher proportion of insomnia compared to the older ones (30.3 vs. 18.6%, p &lt; 0.001). Insomnia was higher among those with &lt;10 years' experience compared to those with more than 20 years' experience(27.3 vs. 17.6%, p = 0.043)Conclusion: Many Kenyan healthcare workers in the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic suffered from various common mental disorders with young, female professionals who are not married bearing the bigger burden. This data is useful in informing interventions to promote mental and psychosocial wellbeing among Kenyan healthcare workers responding to the pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 91-98
Author(s):  
Vu Ngoc Ha ◽  
Mac Dang Tuan ◽  
Nguyen Thanh Trung ◽  
Nguyen Ngoc Huan ◽  
Luu Thi Lien ◽  
...  

A cross-sectional study using DASS21 was performed in June 2019 on staff working at the commune health stations (CHSs), regional general clinics and district general clinics in Soc Son district, Hanoi to assess the mental disorders of the health care workers are working here. Among the 355 health care workers (HCWs) who participated, women accounted for 75.5%. People aged under 30 accounting for 33.5% of HCWs. Physicians, nurses take up 54.4%, and HCWs in the Soc Son district have worked in the health sector for more than ten years, accounting for 45.1%. The study shows that the rates of stress, anxiety, and depression were 13.8%, 25.4% and 16.6%, respectively. 31% of HCWs have at least one mental disorder, 8.2% of study subjects have all three manifestations of mental disorders, 8.4% of study subjects have two symptoms and 14.4% of the study subjects had only one manifestation. The rates of stress, anxiety, and depression were initially screened from the research results. The development of research directions for defnitive diagnosis and support for improving health care workers’ mental health should be integrated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Rana E. Elgabeery ◽  
Radwa A. Eissa ◽  
Sohair M. Soliman ◽  
Naglaa F. Ghoname

Background: As Mobile Phones (MPs) aren’t cleaned routinely and have been touched during patient’s examination, they may become contaminated with hospital pathogens. Objectives: Screen MPs of Health care workers (HCWs) for pathogens and verify the effect of disinfectants in their decontamination. Methods: A questionnaire was submitted by 160 HCWs in Tanta University Hospitals. Samples were taken from their MPs and subjected to pour plate counting before and after disinfection. Standard identification and antibiotic susceptibility of isolates were done. Results: Colony count was greater in MPs used while caring for patients or inside restroom, and was less in regularly cleaned MPs. All tested disinfectants reduced the colony count significantly. Pathogens were isolated from 84.38% of samples and 36.25% of them were Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms (MDROs). Conclusion: Using MPs at critical care areas and restroom may contribute to their contamination with pathogens. Regular disinfection of MPs can reduce this contamination.


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