Abstract
BackgroundHealth care professionals, including physicians, are at high risk of encountering workplace violence. At the same time physician turnover is an increasing problem that threatens the functioning of the health care sector worldwide. The present study examined the prospective associations of work-related physical violence and bullying with physicians’ turnover intentions and job satisfaction. In addition, we tested whether job control would modify these associations.MethodsThe present study was a 4-year longitudinal survey study, with data gathered in 2006 and 2010.The present sample included 1515 (61% women) Finnish physicians aged 25–63 years at baseline. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were conducted while adjusting for gender, age, baseline levels, specialisation status, and employment sector.ResultsThe results of covariance analyses showed that physical violence led to increased physician turnover intentions and that both bullying and physical violence led to reduced physician job satisfaction even after adjustments. We also found that opportunities for job control were able to alleviate the increase in turnover intentions resulting from bullying.ConclusionsOur results suggest that workplace violence is an extensive problem in the health care sector and may lead to increased turnover and job dissatisfaction. Thus, health care organisations should approach this problem through different means, for example, by giving health care employees more opportunities to control their own work.
Highlights
Health care professionals, including physicians, are at high risk of encountering workplace violence
The within-subjects differences in turnover intention and job satisfaction levels between phase 1 and phase 2 were examined with GLM repeated measures analyses
Physical violence and bullying were associated with more turnover intentions, and job control was associated with less turnover intentions
Summary
Health care professionals, including physicians, are at high risk of encountering workplace violence. The present study examined the prospective associations of work-related physical violence and bullying with physicians’ turnover intentions and job satisfaction. In US emergency departments, 75 per cent of physicians had encountered verbal violence and 28 per cent indicated that they had been victims of physical assault in the previous 12 months [2]. 96 per cent of physician respondents in US emergency departments reported experiencing verbal violence and 78 per cent a verbal threat during the previous 6 months [3]. In a study conducted among hospital and community physicians in Israel, 56 per cent reported verbal violence and 9 per cent physical assault during the Workplace violence may have many negative ramifications for health care employees. Among healthcare professionals, workplace violence may lead to difficulties in listening to patients, rumination, poor concentration, and intrusive thoughts [11], as well as impact negatively on family life and quality of life [4]
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