Emergency department workplace violence

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.