A Study of Workplace Violence Experienced by Doctors and Associated Risk Factors in a Tertiary Care Hospital of South Delhi, India

Violence against health care workers: a provider’s (staff nurse) perspective

“…In addition to these measures, certain studies have also suggested that policy by management against violence, educating patients and their families, effective communication, security and alarm systems, restricting public access and controlling visiting times, and adequate staff numbers can also be helpful in preventing the incidents of violence. 33,37,47,[49][50][51][52][53] Since most of the respondents in the current study and other studies perceive that the incidents of violence are preventable, this also suggests that there is an unmet need for the protective systems to be in place. 33 The lack of knowledge and the skill to handle these situations has been cited as the reason for violent incidents.…”

“…33,37,47,[49][50][51][52][53] Since most of the respondents in the current study and other studies perceive that the incidents of violence are preventable, this also suggests that there is an unmet need for the protective systems to be in place. 33 The lack of knowledge and the skill to handle these situations has been cited as the reason for violent incidents. 37 The current study observed the statistically significant difference between the sex of the respondent and the prevalence of violence.…”

“…47,48 In this study, a high percentage of respondents opined that the violence was preventable and similar findings were also observed by Kumar et al in Delhi in 2016. 33 In our study, a large majority of subjects responded that making the waiting area comfortable, restricted entry to examination room and display of action under the law can be helpful in preventing the violence. Apart from these, adequate security measures, training, camera systems, prohibition of firearms in premises, system on regular info on patients, adequate illumination of all places were also provided as solutions for preventing the incidents.…”

“…26,29,30,39 Our study observed that the respondents perceive that the intense workload, high patient expectation and substance abuse were the important contributing factors to the violence against the health care workers similar to the study conducted in Jordan by Darawad et al in 2015 while some other studies have found factors like Direct contact of HCW with highly stressed patients and families because of illness, unrestricted movements of visitors in the hospitals, overcrowding, lack of staff training in prevention and management of aggression and violence, unsatisfied treatment plan, low staffing level, prevalence of weapons among patients/relatives, communication gap, long waiting periods as some of the contributing factors towards the high prevalence of workplace violence in healthcare settings. 26,33,[35][36][37][40][41][42][43] Ever reporting of violence was observed to be very high and encouraging in the current study but more research is required to find out the prevalence of regular reporting of such incidents as the studies globally have shown that only a fraction of these matters are reported. 26,28,29,[44][45][46] The current study indicated that the approx.…”

“…The findings of our study were in coherence with many studies which indicate that nurses are exposed to high rates of workplace violence. 1,19,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] These findings are a cause of concern considering the fact that workplace violence is associated with intentions to leave the profession. 22,38 The current study indicated that in majority of cases patients relatives were the perpetrators of the violence.…”