Abstract:
Objective: To determine the prevalence, predictors and perpetrators of violence, and its impact on the mental health of female healthcare workers. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted from June to October 2022 at three tertiary care hospitals after approval from the ethics review board of Rawalpindi Medical University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and comprised female healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and paramedical staff. Data was collected regarding workplace violence using a structured questionnaire adopted from literature. The incidence of verbal, physical and sexual violence in the preceding 12 months was noted, and predictors were analysed. Data was analysed using SPSS 25. Results: Of the 140 subjects with an age range of 16-60 years, verbal violence was experienced by 102(72.9%) and physical violence by 26(18.6%), while verbal and physical forms of sexual violence were reported by 33(23.6%) and 13(9.3%), respectively. Those in the Medicine department had signicfiantly lower odds of experiencing verbal violence compared to those from the Surgery department (adjusted odds ratio=0.223; 95% condfience interval: 0.078-0.036; p=0.005). Those in the Emergency department had signicfiantly greater odds of experiencing physical violence compared to those in Surgery (adjusted odds ratio=8.716; 95% condfience interval: 1.693-44.87; p=0.01). Violence had a signicfiant detrimental impact on the mental health of female healthcare workers (p<0.05). Conclusion: Violence was found to be prevalent in the healthcare sector, specicfially in stressful and critical-care departments, like Emergency and Surgery.
Keywords:
Sexual Harassment
,
workplace violence
,
Physical violence
,
Female healthcare workers