Abstract
A cross-sectional survey of healthcare professionals from 19 hospitals in six cities of Heilongjiang Province, China was conducted. This study had two objectives: (1) to examine the factors influencing healthcare workers’ opinions of strategies to prevent workplace violence, using social support theory, and (2) to encourage healthcare organisations and the larger society to offer greater support to healthcare workers. The respondents exposed to workplace violence expected to receive organisational and social support. Those exposed to psychological violence had a strong opinion of the need for target training to strengthen their competence in responding to violence (OR = 1.319, 95% CI: 1.034–1.658) and enacting workplace violence legislation (OR = 1.968, 95% CI: 1.523–2.543).Those exposed to physical violence thought it might be useful to reinforce staff with back-up support (OR = 3.101, 95% CI: 1.085–8.860). Those exposed to both types of violence and those with high anxiety levels need greater support at both the organisational and societal levels.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) categorises workplace violence into two types: (1) physical violence and (2)psychological violence [1]
We focused on patients and their family members as sources of violence because they comprise the main types of violent incidents [32], and we define workplace violence as a person’s exposure to at least one type of violence
Of the 1793 healthcare professionals who responded to the questionnaire, 170 (9.5%) reported that they had been exposed to physical violence during the previous 12 months. and 1241 (69.2%) reported that they had been exposed to psychological violence during the same period
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) categorises workplace violence into two types: (1) physical violence (e.g., beating, kicking, slapping, stabbing, shooting, pushing, biting, and pinching) and (2)psychological violence (e.g., threat of physical force against another person or group that can result in harm to physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development) [1]. Workplace violence in the healthcare sector is a worldwide concern, with healthcare workers being at a high risk [2,3]. Workplace violence is common in healthcare settings in China [3,4]. Hospital Association found that 27.3 assaults on healthcare workers per hospital were recorded in 2012, which is considerably larger than the number (20.6) recorded in 2008 [5]. These assaults included events in which healthcare workers were killed or seriously injured. In 2012, a patient at the affiliated hospital of Harbin Medical University fatally stabbed an intern who was not involved in his treatment. In Wenling’s First People’s Hospital, an angry patient violently attacked three doctors with a sharp knife, causing the death of one of the doctors and injuries to the others
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