Prevalence of workplace violence against healthcare workers in post COVID-19 Era, Baghdad 2023

Abstract

Abstract 

Background: Workplace violence is defined as any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation or other threatening, disruptive behavior from patients, patient's family members, external individuals, and hospital personnel. It includes physical, sexual, and psychological assaults. During the pandemic’s first 6 months, 611 events of COVID-19–associated physical and verbal attacks have occurred.

Objectives

-To measure the prevalence of workplace violence against healthcare staff at four major health facilities in Baghdad city in the year of 2023.

-To find out the association between socio-demographic factors of participants and their exposure to violence.

Methods

 A Cross sectional study with analytic elements, that was carried out during the period from February 2023 to May 2023. The sample was collected from four major hospitals in Baghdad city; with a total of 530 participants of medical staff from the included health institutions; answered the relevant questionnaire completely and were enrolled in the study.

Results

 The prevalence of different forms of violence was 45.8%; most of attacks were physical, with a rate of 13.7%, and in the second rank of outcome of the attacks, as this group of society was subjected to verbal violence, such as threats, bullying, and verbal attacks, by 12.43%.

This study demonstrated that young male staff were exposed more frequently to violence than others.

Conclusion: Medical staff are at high risk of violence exposure in health facilities in Baghdad city. Administrators and related departments should pay attention to consequences of these incidents.

Key word: violence, medical staff, pandemic, Iraq