Abstract
Using a cross-sectional survey design from 11 public tertiary hospitals (a specialist hospital, four Chinese medicine hospitals, and six general hospitals) in the urban areas of Heilongjiang, we determined the nature of workplace violence that medical staff have encountered in Chinese hospitals and identified factors associated with those experiences of violence. A total of 1129 health workers participated. The specialist hospital had the highest prevalence of physical violence (35.4%), while the general hospitals had the highest prevalence of non-physical violence (76%). Inexperienced medical staff (p < 0.001) were more likely to suffer non-physical violence than physical violence in Chinese medicine hospitals compared to experienced staff. Medical units (p = 0.001) had a high risk of non-physical violence, while surgical units (p = 0.005) had a high risk of physical violence. In general hospitals, staff with higher levels of anxiety about workplace violence were more vulnerable to both physical violence (1.67, 95% CI 1.36–2.10) and non-physical violence (1.309, 95% CI 1.136–1.508) compared to those with lower levels of anxiety, while rotating shift workers had a higher odds of physical violence (2.2, 95% CI 1.21–4.17) and non-physical violence (1.65, 95% CI 1.13–2.41) compared to fixed day shift workers. Thus, prevention should focus not only on high-risk sections of hospitals, but also on the nature of the hospital itself.
Highlights
Workplace violence (WPV) has become an alarming phenomenon worldwide and one of the biggest public health concerns [1,2,3]
The prevalence of non-physical violence (NPV) in Chinese medical hospitals was higher among participants engaged in rotating shift work (p < 0.001), which was the same for physical violence (PV), and in participants with moderate levels of anxiety about WPV (p = 0.004), who were physicians (p = 0.002), who had less than 5 years of experience (p < 0.001), and who worked in an internal medicine department (p < 0.001) (Table 4)
In the general hospitals, rotating shift workers had an over two-fold greater odds of experiencing PV (2.16, 95% CI 1.18–3.95) and an over 1.5-fold greater odds of experiencing NPV (1.65, 95% CI 1.13–2.4) compared to fixed day shift workers
Summary
Workplace violence (WPV) has become an alarming phenomenon worldwide and one of the biggest public health concerns [1,2,3]. While there is no general agreement between researchers on its definition, workplace violence has been previously defined as “incidents where staff are abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to their work, including commuting to and from work, involving an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, well-being or health”. This definition was adopted from the joint study of the International Labour Office (ILO), International Council of Nurses (ICN), World. Research in England, Hong Kong, and China has shown that PV varied from 5.3% to 21% and verbal abuse from 43% to 73% [7]
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