Workplace violence and its associated factors among nurses working in public hospitals of eastern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Workplace violence (WPV) is defined as “The intentional use of power, threatened or actual, against another person or a group, in work-related circumstances” [1]. The WPV inflicted injury could be physical, psychological or concurrent in form. Physical and psychological WPV results in several consequences, including disturbing emotion, burnout, job dissatisfaction, substance addiction and other psychological effects, which ultimately endangers the victims’ wellbeing and results in poor performance and lost productivity [2, 3]. WPV greatly impacts the communication line between patients and health workers in that the victims behave “patient-avoiding behaviors” and distance from talking with or listening to the patients’ need and concerns [2, 4]. Especially in sub-Saharan Africa, due to compromised health policy and practice and the emigration of health professionals, it is challenging to retain healthcare task forces. This challenge is to an extent linked with WPV [4].

Nurses are working as first-line care providers and are the largest task forces working in different varieties of working settings, they are highly victimized by WPV [5, 6]. It continues as a growing global concern in health care institutions [7‐9]. Nearly three-fourths (72%) of nurses reported that they do not feel safe in the workplace [10]. The extent of WPV varies from place to place ranging from 24.7% to 88.9%. It is serious in an emergency, geriatric and psychiatry departments of the health facilities [9, 11]. Even though, different studies indicate that violence against Nurses is growing, 80% of workplace assaults among registered nurses went unreported formally [12]. Lack of reporting mechanism, and policy framework; lack of trust in the management system or fear of being blamed were some among the reasons for underreporting of the incidents [13]. Colleagues, supervisors/directors, physicians, patients and patients’ relatives were the primary perpetrators of WPV [9, 11].

A piece of literature on workplace violence among nurses in Africa includes, a cross-sectional study among nurses in four hospitals and eleven primary health care centers was conducted in Egypt. The result was 27.7% reported violence of any form and specifically 69.5% verbal & 9.3% physical violence was noted [14] Another study conducted in Malawi, WPV among the nurses was 71%. The type of violence experienced was physical (22%), verbal (95%) and sexual harassment (16%) [15]. There was also, anothere study conducted in two health region of Gambia reported 62.1% of the participants experienced violence, and 17.2%, 59.8% and 10% of them reported physical, verbal and sexual harassment respectively [16]. Much less (9%) physical violence was observed in Ghana [17]. A study conducted in Nigeria on three selected hospitals, 66% of nurses encountered WPV, and 55% verbal, 8.5% bullying and 6% sexual harassment was reported [18]. Another study was conducted in a teaching university hospital in Nigeria revealed that the magnitude of WPV was a little less than the previous study, and the magnitudes were, 15.3%, 42.9%, 7% and 2.3% of physical, verbal, bullying and sexual harassment respectively [19]

In Ethiopia, directives regarding occupational safety and health (OSH) were to be provided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA). Under the Ethiopian labour proclamation of No. 377/2003, article 92, employers have the legal obligation to protect the health and safety of their workers. But there was no national OSH policy and professionally established body or association, that deals with how the incident should be handled and monitored [20]. Research evidence is very crucial to inform policy for the prevention and control of WPV. Nevertheless, little is known about the prevalence and associated factors of WPV against Nurses in eastern Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of WPV and its associated factors among nurse professionals working at public hospitals in eastern Ethiopia.

The study determined the prevalence of WPV and its associated factors among nurse professionals. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of nurses had experienced WPV in the last 12 months. More than a quarter (28.2%) of nurses experienced both physical and psychological forms of violence. Less than a tenth (7.1%) of them experienced all forms of WPV in the last 12 months. The main perpetrators in all types of WPV were Relatives of patients/clients and patients/clients themselves. In this study; the department/working unit, being worried about violence, being witnessing physical violence, reporting procedures and institution policy on WPV were significantly associated.

In line with the prevalence in this study, a similar finding was noted in Nepal(64.5%) [28], Bangladesh (64.2%) [29], Gambia (62.1%) [16] and south-west Nigeria (67%) [18]. On the other hand, a lower prevalence was noted in the studies conducted in the USA (46%) [30], Hong Kong (44.3%) [31], Italy (42%) [32], and in 5 European countries (54%) [33]. This prevalence gap is possibly due to the socio-economic difference noted between the developed and developing countries and it might be related to the gap between the services demanded by the service user and the service provided by the nurses. Additionally, there could be burnouts related to the overload of nurses in providing care to the patients, which indirectly affects the relationship of the nurses with the patients/patient relatives. This are some of the most influential factors affecting the relationship between the service provider and service user in developing countries like that of Ethiopia. The finding of this study is also seemingly higher than studies conducted in Amhara Regional State (26.7%) [25] and Hawasa City Administration (29.9%) [8] of Ethiopia. This huge gap in contrast to this study is due to the operational definitions. Both forms of WPV of this study were similar to the above studies. In the same tone, a lower prevalence was noted in Gamo Gofa zone of southern Ethiopia (43.1%) [27]. This might be due to the socio-cultural differences and/or high prevalence of psychoactive substance use in this study area that might influence individuals to be more impulsive and aggressive. A systematic review and meta-analysis done among nurses in the South-East Asian and Western Pacific region revealed that the pooled prevalence of WPV was 58% [34]. The difference with this pooled prevalence might be due to the convergence of multiple studies which vary significantly in their magnitude. In the other extreme, a higher prevalence was reported in Greek (76%) [35] and Malawi (71%) [15]. This gap is to a part contributed to the high prevalence of verbal abuse in those countries, which is easy to be manifested in one’s aggression and/or might be due to the less weight given in this study area and using smaller sample size in these studies. A higher prevalence was also noted in the Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia (82.2%) [36]. This might be due to the nature of the study setting, the study was done in a referral hospitals in Oromia with a higher number of very frustrated patients and relatives attending services; in that high patient flow aggregated with long waiting time for service tempted the perpetrators to respond violently, mainly through aggressive words.

It is evidenced that, WPV is common among health care work force, particularly among nurses which can lead to serious diverse negative consequences among the nurses or patients/patient families. In sub-Saharan Africa, WPV was reported in many countries, where there are limited health care professionals the consequence on the health care system would be paramount. This high prevalence of violence would finally become a public health threat. There for it is important to use the evidences generated to formulate strategic plans, like raising awareness, frequent incidence reporting and reviewing, adequate staffing, regular training in early identification of violence, which will help to decrease WPV among health care professional [37, 38].

The clinical setting nurses working in were more likely riskier in the departments of surgery, emergency, psychiatry and medical wards than the specialized units. This is in line with studies conducted in Hawasa City Administration [8] and Oromia Regional State [36]. This might be related to the relatively high number of patient admissions, the unstable & violent nature of patients and coupled with a stressful working environment. It is recommended to have adequate staffing, adequate working & visitors spacing, restricting public access and educating de-escalation and risk management skills on predisposed working departments.

Being worried about violence and being witnessing physical violence incidents were significantly associated with WPV. These factors were consistent with the studies conducted in Brazil and Jordan [39, 40]. This might be indicating that those who were worried and witnessing violence were working in a clinically predisposed work environment. Studies revealed that the worry about violence is associated with a disabling mental disorder, anxiety disorder [41]. This indicated that those nurses who worried about violence at work place are more likely to experience mental disorder.

The odds of WPV were higher in nurses who reported ‘absence/not-aware of reporting procedure & institutional policies’ on WPV. These factors were noted in a study conducted in Saudi Arabia [42]. This might be related to the absence of a formal reporting procedure might undermine the prevalence of the incident and was unable to take proper measures to minimize or prevent the incident of violence accordingly [12]. In those institutions where organizational polices are in place, there is a significant reductions of risk of violence and expression prohibited violent behaviors [43]. The impact of WPV is paramount, it affects the organization as well as the workers. The cost of WPV is higher in organizations where WPV is higher. Therefore organizations have responsibility to prevent violence first and foremost by creating and sustaining a positive work culture where people are treated respectfully by the management, co-workers and there should be a mechanism where good work is recognized and conflicts are resolved effectively as soon as they arise. Organizations with cultures which support fair working conditions and zero tolerance for workplace aggressions have been shown to help to mitigate the WPV [44].

Finally, piece of literatures revealed that there were different factors associated with WPV ranging from individual factors to societal factors [2]. Existing evidence categorized the factors associated with WPV into three major categories; such as individual/personal factors, organizational/workplace factors and environmental/situational factors [36, 42, 45]. These factors might be positively or negatively influenced in the covid-19 pandemic. A study conducted in Israel reported that there is a decrease in incidence of workplace violence among hospital staffs [46]. On the contrary, studies conducted in USA noted an increase in incidence of violence during the pandemic [47, 48]. Another study conducted in china revealed that there was an increase in the incidence of WPV during the covid-19 pandemic. Security measures were proved to have significant effect in reducing the WPV [49]. Nevertheless, there is no identified evidence that assessed the impact of Covid-19 on workplace violence among health professionals in sub-Saharan Africa and Ethiopia in particular. Considering the global context, it might have a significant impact on the prevalence of WPV in Ethiopia, particularly in the study area.

Nearly two-thirds of nurses had experienced at least one form of WPV in the last 12 months, which is an acceptable high. The incident of WPV against nurses was higher in general patient care wards than in specialized units. Nurses who were worried about violence and did not aware the presence of reporting procedure were associated with WPV. Nurses being witnessed WPV so far, and did not aware of the existence of institutional policy against WPV or not were the associated factors. We suggest that stakeholders (physicians, nurses, administrators, managers, scientific societies, security bodies, political decision makers and others) could work on early risk identification and management of violent incidents, establish violence reporting and sanction mechanisms using contextual strategies to prevent WPV against nurse professionals. Specially, the alliance between health professionals and security personnel have a significant role in minimizing aggression against health professionals [50]. Use of simple and rapid user friendly reporting technologies could contribute in the reduction of WPV against nurse professionals [51]. Qualitative studies might be helpfull to solidify the results obtained from quantitative studies, such as this, to find possible interventions and solutions in management of aggression in nursing areas [50‐52].