Predictors of Work-Related Violence Against Nurses Working at a Tertiary Hospital in Kisumu, Kenya.

Abstract

Background

Workplace violence (WPV) is any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated or assaulted in their work environment. It could involve physical, verbal or written threatening behaviour or physical attacks. Workplace violence against nurses is increasingly becoming a major problem globally. Because of the nature of their work, nurses are at increased risk of workplace violence.

Objective

To assess workplace violence against nurses at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital.

Materials and methods

It employed a cross-sectional study design among 184 nurses randomly selected from Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu-Kenya. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire that asked questions regarding their sociodemographic characteristics, nature of their work, experience with workplace violence and institutional factors that could be associated with workplace violence. The data obtained was analysed descriptively (in the form of frequencies and proportions for categorical variable and inferentially as mean with corresponding standard deviation) and inferentially. Pearson chi-square test was adopted to assess statistically significant association between predictors of WPV and violence occurrence. Odds ratios were computed at 95% confidence interval.

Results

This study enrolled 184 nurses with a mean age of 37 (± 9.5) years, of whom 62% were female. Majority (88%; n = 162) of the nurses enrolled were at the operational level with 2 (1.1%) being supervisors and 20 (10.9%) being in senior management. Workplace violence was reported by 70% of the respondents, with 41.8% of them saying they were verbally abused. Among those physically abused, 71.8% were assaulted by the relatives of the patients with 28.2% being injured because of the incident. Bullying by co-workers was noted among 24 (13.0%) of the respondents while 41 (22.3%) reported sexual harassment. 96.2% had not received any training on WPV prevention in the last twelve months. Working in the general surgery department (p < 0.001) and lack of safety measures (p = 0.020) predicted WPV.

Conclusion

the study reports that working in general surgical wards and lack of institutional measures against violence are the major predictors of workplace violence among nurses. There is need to understand institutional processes, procedures and operations that reduce the likelihood of workplace violence in other hospital departments and apply these findings to the general surgery unit where there was a higher prevalence of workplace violence.