Assessment of occupational violence towards pharmacists at practice settings in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Occupational Violence is prevalent among healthcare workers, including pharmacists, and poses a big threat to their job satisfaction, safety, and social wellbeing.
 Objective: This study seeks to assess the incidents and factors associated with occupational violence towards pharmacists in Nigeria.
 Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among pharmacists practicing in Nigeria, using an online survey (Google FormTM). Occupational violence was assessed using a validated questionnaire. The survey was conducted and reported based on the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES). Participants were recruited by sharing the survey link via social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
 Results: A total of 263 respondents returned the online questionnaire, with a completion rate of 99.2%. The prevalence of occupational violence was 92.7% (95% CI, 90 to 96). Violent events occurred among 48.7% of pharmacists with at least six years of experience, and 68.4% of hospital pharmacists. The commonly reported factors associated with the violence include long waiting times in the pharmacy (36.5%), refusal to fulfil aggressor’s demands (22.1%), and counseling/poor communication (21.7%). Events related to verbal abuse were reported among 95% of the participants. The prevalence of violence was significantly higher among hospital pharmacists, compared with those practicing in administration/regulatory, and in community pharmacies (chi-square=10.213 (2); p=0.006). Similarly, physical aggression was higher among hospital pharmacists (chi-square=10.646 (2), p = 0.005).
 Conclusions: The prevalence of occupational violence towards pharmacists practicing in Nigeria appeared to be high. Major factors associated with the violence were refusal to fulfil aggressors’ demands and frustrations due to long waiting times at pharmacy. Recommended strategies to slowdown the incidences of violence were improved pharmacists’ workforce, interprofessional harmony, and penalties against perpetrators.

Exposure of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians to Violence in Community Pharmacies in Southeast Europe: Frequency and Ethical Considerations

“…There are studies showing that women are more prone to violence [1], but data is inconsistent [15]. Another hypothesis that was confirmed and aligned with other studies from Ireland, the UK, Australia, Nigeria, and Egypt was that the patients/clients are recognized as the most common perpetrators of violence [16][17][18][19][20][21]. This was confirmed for all three types of violence and in all four included countries from the SEE region in the study.…”

“…Another hypothesis that the victims of violence would talk about it mostly with their work colleagues was confirmed, as studies have shown previously in Australia, Nigeria, and Europe [17,20,23]. An especially important finding was that the number of reports to supervisors was low, probably because the previous experience has shown that in more than 90% of cases, there was no structured support for victims of violence, even in traumatic WPV, such as robberies, which confirmed another study hypothesis.…”

Mental health in Nigeria: A Neglected issue in Public Health

“…The psychiatrists and other mental health specialists are mainly available at tertiary healthcare centers to review and treat complex cases. Nigeria with over 190 million population [ 5 ], have fewer than 300 psychiatrist accounting for a ratio of about 700,000 of the population per psychiatrist (1; 700,000), most of whom are urban based, and in view of poor knowledge of mental disorders at the primary health-care level, caring for people with mental illness is typically left to family members [ 6 ]. Furthermore, nine out of every ten doctors in Nigeria are seeking to leave the country and only eight neuropsychiatric hospitals are available in the entire country responsible for professional training of psychiatric doctors as well as managing patients with psychiatric disorders [ 7 ].…”

Evaluation of job satisfaction among pharmacists working in public health facilities

“… 33 It is worthy that occupational violence towards pharmacists is very common in Nigerian hospitals, commonly starting verbally at the initial stage and escalating to more severe forms of abuse, as reported by Khalid et al . 34 Such hostile environment can negatively impact job satisfaction with working facility. One contributing factor could be the significant low pharmacist-to-patient ratio in public hospitals in Nigeria, leading to prolonged patient waiting times in the pharmacy unit and ensuing dissatisfaction.…”