Violence to staff in psychiatric hospitals

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Being exposed to violence at workplace is threatening to healthcare staff. Increasingly violence has been cited by nurses as the most important reason for leaving nursing profession. The current study aims to study the status of violence against medical staff of psychiatric hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. METHODOLOGY: This study is a descriptive-applied research which studied 151 nurses working in Farabi and Khorshid hospitals in 2015. The tool for information gathering which was a standardized questionnaire on “workplace violence against medical staff” was filled in by the respondents. The study's questionnaire includes demographic information and two types of violence and abuse: physical and emotional (verbal aggression, bullying, racial, and ethnic). Chi-square test, t-test, and analysis of variance and logistic regression tests were used for statistical data analysis of answers. RESULTS: The results indicate that 58.9% of nurses have experienced physical violence while 81.4%, 32.4%, and 7.3% have been exposed to verbal violence, workplace bullying, and racial and ethnic violence, respectively. The most cases of violence have been perpetrated by patients and their families or companions. There was not a significant relation between likelihood of being exposed to different types of workplace violence and the hospital, level of physical contact with patient, and patient gender. CONCLUSION: Given the rate of reported violence in medical centers, the health authorities should make every effort to reduce healthcare-related abuse and violence through using of proper preventive strategies, proper management, taking safety measures, and increasing public awareness about all aspects of the issue.