Emergency department workplace violence
Date
2016
Authors
Jaffal, Amer
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Abstract
Objectives: The aim of the current research was to determine the perception and
experience of different emergency department occupational groups regarding
workplace violence in the past 12 months and to determine the effect that it had on
them in two government hospitals in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Materials and Methods: The current research was a cross sectional, retrospective
qualitative survey.
Results: Eighty-six surveys (43%) out of the distributed 200 questionnaires were
returned. Five surveys were unfilled leaving 81 surveys (40.5%) that are included in
the analysis. Psychological violence was experienced by 73 % (n=51) of the
participants while physical violence was experienced by 34.2% (n=27). Patients were
the perpetrators of 61% and 67.9% of psychological and physical violence against
staff members, respectively. Friends and family members who accompanied patients
in the emergency department accounted for 27.4% psychological violence while this
same set of people caused 17.3% of physical violence. Ninety-one percent of the
participants reported that they did not receive any training courses on how to handle
workplace violence incidents. Medical staff (doctors and nurses) were found to be at
an increased risk to psychological violence.
Conclusions: Workplace violence was commonly experienced by ED staff members.
Majority of the incidents were in the form of psychological violence; however, a
considerable percentage of the participants experienced physical violent incidents.
Most of the violent incidents experienced were perceived to be preventable by majority
of participants. This research supports the need for practical training and education of
the ED staff members, on how to prevent and deal with issues related to ED WPV.
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of
the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree of Master of Medicine in Emergency Medicine.
Johannesburg, March, 2016