Individual and job factors affecting the exposure to occupational violence among health care workers in the hospitals in Yazd province in 2016

Abstract

Introduction: There are some tensions in occupational activities that are caused by harsh conditions and occupational violence is considered one of these tensions. Workplace violence is a global problem. Healthcare workers are globally exposed to the workplace violence more than any other workers. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between some individual and job variables with exposure to occupational violence among health care workers in the hospitals in Yazd province, Iran. Material and Method: This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted in eight educational hospitals in Yazd province, Iran. Research population (600 participants) consisted of all healthcare personnel employed in hospitals affiliated to the Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd and were selected by stratified sampling. The Negative Act Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R) was used to investigate occupational violence and data analysis was performed using multiple logistic regression tests. Result: The average score of occupational violence was 19.3. Among individual factors, gender (male) and educational level (MSc degree), and among job factors, shift work (morning shift) and type of work environment (genecology and pediatrics wards) had significant relationships with the incidence of violence among the employees. Conclusion: The importance of these findings is in planning and deployment of intervention measures using educational training with regard to the ways of preventing violence, decreasing the coworkers’ aggression, dealing with and increasing awareness about personal and civilian rights in order to reduce the phenomenon of violence among employees.

Keywords

• occupational violence
• hospital personnel
• bullying
• work environment