Relationship between workplace violence and work stress in the emergency department

• Main Authors: Lahya Afshari Saleh, Shabnam Niroumand, Zohreh Dehghani, Tahoura Afshari Saleh, Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi, Hosein Zakeri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences 2020-07-01
• Series: Journal of Injury and Violence Research
• Subjects: workplace violence; occupational stress
• Online Access: http://jivresearch.org/jivr/index.php/jivr/article/view/1526/866
• ISSN: 2008-2053; 2008-4072

Background: Work place violence (WPV) is one of the workplace factors that can affect many aspects of the emergency staff's life. In this study, we are investigating the relationship between WPV and occupational stress. Methods: We surveyed emergency department (ED) staff in a cross-sectional study design in three Mashhad Hospitals between 2017 and 2018. World Health Organization WPV and occupational stress questionnaire was used and 171 out of 200 collected data were analyzed. To investigate the relationship between different variables, t-test and logistic regression were implemented. Results: In general, 58 (34.5%) participants had reported a physical assault, 116 (71.6%) verbal abuse, and 76 (44.4%) bullying/harassment within the past year. Males reported more experi-ence of physical assault (P less than 0.001), verbal abuse (P less than 0.04) and bullying/harass-ment (P less than 0.01). The educational level and time shifts were associated with the frequency of physical violence and bullying/harassment (P less than 0.03), respectively. We noticed an as-sociation between the job stress scales and some types of work place violence including physical assault (P=0.02), bullying/harassment (P=0.006) and demands scale in recent cited violence (P=0.07). Conclusion: We presented considerable prevalence of WPV among ED staff. Improving work-place condition and reducing occupational stress could be decrease WPV frequency.