Prevalence of workplace violence against health staff in Malatya

Abstract

This study was performed to determine the prevalence of physical, psychological and sexual violence against health staff working at health care institutions and the associated factors in Malatya, Turkey. Participants were randomly chosen by stratified sampling method according to profession. Data were collected via the questionnaires adapted by the violence survey form prepared by WHO. 588 health staff gave back the form after they answered the questions. The coverage rate was 90.5%. Overall workplace violence prevalence in the last year was 67.2%. The most prevalent violence type was mobbing (60.4%). It was followed by physical violence (23.1%), and sexual violence (1.2%). Regarding professions, physicians were exposed to physical violence, psychological violence more than the others (p<0.05). The most frequently reported perpetrators in overall violence were patients’ relatives (58.7%) and patients themselves (20%). Of the health staff who experienced violence only 24% reported the attacks to the related legal authorities. The research has shown that workplace violence against health staff is a common problem in Malatya. However, reporting of violence or seeking formal help for violence is not common. Further studies should be conducted to more closely to examine the problem.