Assaults against health care workers in Sudan: An on-going issue

Abstract

Background The increasing threat of workplace violence in the health sector in Sudan is a multifactorial problem which displayed lack of trust in doctors and health care workers (HCWs). Objective To study assaults against HCWs employed in Haj Elsafie Teaching Hospital, Khartoum North Sudan. Method An analytical cross-sectional hospital-based study was carried between September 2018 and October 2019. The data was collected through semi-structured questionnaire. Results The prevalence of assaults was 59.6% among 240 participants. Over history females get assaulted most with significant statistical association (p=0.024). Mostly doctors, lab doctors and nurses gone through assault and most of the incidence were happened at medicine department, with a significant statistical association (p=0.038). Verbal assaults were the most frequent among all jobs types, but sexual assault remains high in female. It was found that only 25.8% assault victim filed an official report to the hospital administration. Majority of assault victim explain that they found it unnecessary to report (54.0%), they believed hospital will not take action (30.0%) and assailant will not face any consequences (17.0%). Only, 5.0% disclosed feared from assailant. Conclusion High prevalence of assault incidents among HCWs were found yet official report filing to hospital administration remains low. While poor quality of care was believed to be the main reason for the assault. Training HCWs to deal with patients and teaching them proper communication skills is essential.