VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION TOWARD HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS IN EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS IN TABUK, SAUDI ARABIA, 5102

Turki Y. Alzahrani, Abdulrahman H. Almutairi, Dakheal A. Alamri, Mari M. Alamri, Yousef S. Alalawi*

ABSTRACT

Background: Workplace violence is a concerning issue. Healthcare workers represent a significant portion of the victims, especially those who work in the emergency department. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence, identify the types, sources and reasons of violence that occur in public hospitals emergency room (ER) departments of Tabuk as well as to investigate its impacts on providing good health care services. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out between June and October 2015 among health care professionals (physicians, nurses and paramedics) of all three public hospital ER departments of Tabuk city, Saudi Arabia (two belonging to Ministry of health and one belonging to military division). A predesigned Arabic validated self-administered questionnaire was utilized. Results: The study included 129 health care professionals. Their age ranged between 21 and 62 years with a mean±SD of 31.1±8.3 years. Almost two-thirds were males (64.3%) and married (66.7%). Nearly half of them were physicians (48.8%) whereas 34.1% were nurses. History of violence during working hours in ER was reported among the majority of health care professionals (90.7%). Workplace violence was more significantly reported among older healthcare professionals (>35years) (p=0.027), those working in Ministry of Health ED departments (p=0.044), physicians (96.8%) followed by nurses (90.9%) (p=0.004), those having longer experience in ER departments (p=0.015) and in KSA (p=0.015). More than half of violent insults (58.9%) took place during night shifts. In most of the cases (79%), violence was committed by hands or fists whereas, in 17.3% of the case, weapons or instruments were used. Insults were reported in only 38.5% of cases. The commonest reason of non-reporting as mentioned by healthcare professionals was the previous experience of reporting violence with no action was taken (65.3%). According to healthcare professionals` perspectives, the commonest reported reason for violence in the ER departments agreed upon by them were the absence of punishment (90.6%), followed by the shortage in the number of staffs (88.4%), overcrowding (87.6%) and lack of security (86.7%). The best solutions agreed upon by health care professionals to reduce ER workplace violence were encouragement and establishment of a system to report violent events (91.5%) and an establishment of punishment policy that is clear for both health workers and patient and their companions (91.5%). Conclusion: workplace violence is a significant problem facing a considerable proportion of healthcare professionals in emergency departments, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: victims, especially those who work in the emergency department.