Prevalence and determinants of workplace violence among nurses in the South‐East Asian and Western Pacific Regions: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

Background Workplace violence (WPV) includes verbal abuse, physical violence, bullying or mobbing, assault and sexual harassment. The area has been well researched in the developed and high‐income countries among nurses and healthcare professionals, but in the case of the low and upper‐middle‐income countries, there remains a paucity of comprehensive data on the prevalence of WPV and its contributing factors. Aims To estimate the prevalence and determinants of WPV among nurses working in the South‐East Asian Region and Western Pacific Regions. Design Systematic review and Meta‐analysis. Method A comprehensive search was done to retrieve articles based on a PRISMA compliant protocol registered in PROSPERO: CRD 42020223605. Study selection, quality assessment and data abstraction were independently done by the team members and discrepancies addressed through mutual consensus. Random‐effect meta‐analysis, I2 statistics and subgroup analysis were done. Results The review included 41 studies conducted among 42,222 nurses from 13 countries. The pooled prevalence of WPV, verbal abuse, physical violence, threatening behaviour, physical assault, sexual harassment and bullying/mobbing were 58% (CI 51%‐64%), 64% (CI 59%‐70%), 23% (CI 14%–34%), 30(CI‐11%–52%), 21% (CI 8%‐38%), 12% (CI 7%‐17%) and 25% (17%‐33%), respectively. The various determinants of WPV included attributes related to the patient, nurses and organisation. Moreover, the impact of WPV included physical, psychological repercussions on nurses and the various measures used to manage it. Conclusion Nurses encounter a high level of WPV especially verbal abuse in their workplace settings. Nursing councils and professional nursing organisations should put in their effort towards the formulation and implementation of occupational safety legislation in their respective countries through appropriate political lobbying. Relevance to clinical practice. Our review highlights the emerging need to focus on the prevention of WPV among nurses working in lower, middle and upper‐middle‐income countries. Legislation changes and organisational commitment are vital for ensuring effective policies to combat WPV.

Prevalence and health correlates of workplace violence and discrimination against hospital employees – a cross-sectional study in German-speaking Switzerland

“…Workplace violence or aggression is not a new phenomenon but a serious and growing problem that can be found in virtually all occupations [ 1 ]. And workplace violence is not a marginal phenomenon but rather an everyday event that is frequently observed and highly prevalent in social services and particularly in health care settings and among nurses [ 2 – 5 ]. And although workplace violence against health care workers is increasingly recognized and addressed in health (services) research, in public, practice and politics it always was and still is strongly underreported and largely ignored or tolerated [ 6 ].…”

“…Workplace violence against health care workers seems to be most common in the forms of verbal abuse and sexual harassment and particularly widespread in North American and Asian countries [ 3 , 4 , 6 , 15 , 16 ]. According to several systematic reviews up to two thirds of the nurses and other health professionals are exposed to violence at the workplace within a year, depending on the profession, setting (or context), country or study [ 3 – 5 , 15 , 17 , 18 ]. Health care workers are particularly affected from workplace violence and regularly confronted with aggression from patients or their relatives mainly because they are in frequent or even daily contact with people in distress and despair and/or with mental health problems [ 19 ].…”

“…Health care workers are particularly affected from workplace violence and regularly confronted with aggression from patients or their relatives mainly because they are in frequent or even daily contact with people in distress and despair and/or with mental health problems [ 19 ]. Among all health professionals, nurses and – to a lesser extent and at a lower frequency – also physicians are especially vulnerable and most exposed to workplace violence and frequently experience aggression from patients or relatives [ 2 , 5 , 6 , 15 , 20 ]. Workplace violence in general and physical aggression in particular occur most frequently in psychiatric institutions, nursing homes and emergency departments [ 3 , 6 , 14 , 17 , 21 , 22 ].…”

Prevalence and influencing factors of posttraumatic growth among nurses suffering from workplace violence: A cross‐sectional study

“…Workplace violence against healthcare providers is on the rise (Gignon et al 2014;Yi et al 2020), while nurses usually have the most contact with patients and face the highest risk of violent attack, such as physical and verbal violence (Gomaa et al 2015). Nurses are at risk for direct trauma exposure in their daily work consequent to workplace violence, abuse, and workplace accidents (Okoli et al 2021;Varghese et al 2021). Studies have confirmed that nursing professionals' trauma exposure may reduce their work quality by increasing their vulnerability to stress, resulting in higher than normal incidences of work-related emotional distress, fatigue, burnout, secondary traumatic stress (STS), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Beck, 2011;Yi et al 2020).…”

Strengthening health systems in crisis due to COVID-19 requires ending violence against female healthcare workers

“…While this analysis focused on violence perpetrated by patients and visitors, studies from across world regions document co-workers and supervisors as perpetrators of WPV as well. 3 , 4 …”