MyMedR

Displaying all 8 publications

Abstract:

Sort:

Contemporary evidence of workplace violence against the primary healthcare workforce worldwide: a systematic review

Yusoff HM, Ahmad H, Ismail H, Reffin N, Chan D, Kusnin F, et al.

Hum Resour Health, 2023 Oct 13;21(1):82.
PMID: 37833727 DOI: 10.1186/s12960-023-00868-8

Violence against healthcare workers recently became a growing public health concern and has been intensively investigated, particularly in the tertiary setting. Nevertheless, little is known of workplace violence against healthcare workers in the primary setting. Given the nature of primary healthcare, which delivers essential healthcare services to the community, many primary healthcare workers are vulnerable to violent events. Since the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978, the number of epidemiological studies on workplace violence against primary healthcare workers has increased globally. Nevertheless, a comprehensive review summarising the significant results from previous studies has not been published. Thus, this systematic review was conducted to collect and analyse recent evidence from previous workplace violence studies in primary healthcare settings. Eligible articles published in 2013-2023 were searched from the Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed literature databases. Of 23 included studies, 16 were quantitative, four were qualitative, and three were mixed method. The extracted information was analysed and grouped into four main themes: prevalence and typology, predisposing factors, implications, and coping mechanisms or preventive measures. The prevalence of violence ranged from 45.6% to 90%. The most commonly reported form of violence was verbal abuse (46.9-90.3%), while the least commonly reported was sexual assault (2-17%). Most primary healthcare workers were at higher risk of patient- and family-perpetrated violence (Type II). Three sub-themes of predisposing factors were identified: individual factors (victims' and perpetrators' characteristics), community or geographical factors, and workplace factors. There were considerable negative consequences of violence on both the victims and organisations. Under-reporting remained the key issue, which was mainly due to the negative perception of the effectiveness of existing workplace policies for managing violence. Workplace violence is a complex issue that indicates a need for more serious consideration of a resolution on par with that in other healthcare settings. Several research gaps and limitations require additional rigorous analytical and interventional research. Information pertaining to violent events must be comprehensively collected to delineate the complete scope of the issue and formulate prevention strategies based on potentially modifiable risk factors to minimise the negative implications caused by workplace violence.

Matched MeSH terms: Workplace Violence*
Workplace violence among nurses in a Penang hospital: Prevalence and risk factors

Halim I, Syukur AZ, David CCH, Hanis A, Baharudin MH, Dzualkamal D

Med J Malaysia, 2022 Nov;77(6):744-749.
PMID: 36448394

INTRODUCTION: Workplace violence (WPV) has become a universal concern and is perceived as a serious safety and health threat, especially in healthcare settings. Very few studies have been done previously to determine the prevalence of WPV and associated risk factors among nurses in Malaysia. Among the health professionals, nurses spend most of their time with patients compared to other healthcare professionals. Several studies suggested that nurses had a higher risk of experiencing WPV. This study determined the prevalence and associated risk factors of WPV among nurses in a government hospital.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study involved 410 randomly selected respondents among nurses in a government hospital in Penang, Malaysia. Data were gathered through a self-administered questionnaire consisting of a standardised questionnaire regarding WPV.
RESULTS: The prevalence of reported WPV was 43.9%. The most common forms of WPV were verbal abuse (82.2%), followed by psychological violence (8.9%), physical violence (8.3%), and sexual violence (0.6%). The perpetrators were primarily among relatives of patients (51.7%), followed by patients (30%). Multiple logistic regression demonstrated that nurses working in the emergency department (ED) were six times more likely to experience WPV than in other departments (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 6.139, 95% CI: 1.28 - 4.03). In addition, nurses in the age group of ≤30 years old were twice more likely to experience WPV (AOR 2.275, 95% CI: 3.4-11.08).
CONCLUSION: This study indicates that the prevalence of WPV among nurses is high and most common among young nurses and those working in ED. Hence, hospital management should develop guidelines and comprehensive policies to prevent WPV. In addition, education and training, especially among young nurses and those working in the ED, are needed to increase their knowledge in the management and prevention of WPV and counselling sessions for nurses who have experienced WPV.

Matched MeSH terms: Workplace Violence*
Fulltext The importance of organizational climate for psychosocial safety in the prevention of sexual harassment at work

Tan MPC, Kwan SSM, Yahaya A, Maakip I, Voo P

J Occup Health, 2020 Jan;62(1):e12192.
PMID: 33368878 DOI: 10.1002/1348-9585.12192

OBJECTIVES: Workplace sexual harassment is a prominent issue in Malaysia. Although the subject of sexual harassment has been researched for over two decades, information on how organizations could effectively prevent workplace sexual harassment is limited. The researchers investigated the importance of organizational climate for psychosocial safety of workplace sexual harassment prevention.
METHODS: Purposive random sampling was utilized to recruit participants in the study. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with Malaysian employees (N = 20) from various organizations. The study applied the Grounded Theory Approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1976) to identify the participants' coping strategies in dealing with sexual harassment that occurred at their workplace.
RESULTS: The interviews revealed that both genders were potential victims or witnesses of workplace sexual harassment. Since many Malaysian organizations do not implement any workplace sexual harassment prevention, most of the victims and witnesses tend to use passive self-coping approaches. Typically, policy and guidelines implementation would encourage employees to voice their concerns; however, we discovered that participants' motivation to use active coping strategies depended on organizational role rather than the policy and guidelines implementation. Surprisingly, we also found out that participants from zero policy organizations used active coping strategies when the sexual harassment reached intolerable levels.
CONCLUSION: Organizations play a critical role in helping and supporting both victims and witnesses deal with sexual harassment at the workplace. Organizational climate for psychosocial safety is therefore crucial in the primary and secondary prevention of sexual harassment at work.

Matched MeSH terms: Workplace Violence/prevention & control*; Workplace Violence/psychology
Security robot for the prevention of workplace violence using the Non-linear Adaptive Heuristic Mathematical Model

Tao H, Rahman MA, Al-Saffar A, Zhang R, Salih SQ, Zain JM, et al.

Work, 2021;68(3):853-861.
PMID: 33612528 DOI: 10.3233/WOR-203419

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, workplace violence is found to be a mental health hazard and considered a crucial topic. The collaboration between robots and humans is increasing with the growth of Industry 4.0. Therefore, the first problem that must be solved is human-machine security. Ensuring the safety of human beings is one of the main aspects of human-robotic interaction. This is not just about preventing collisions within a shared space among human beings and robots; it includes all possible means of harm for an individual, from physical contact to unpleasant or dangerous psychological effects.
OBJECTIVE: In this paper, Non-linear Adaptive Heuristic Mathematical Model (NAHMM) has been proposed for the prevention of workplace violence using security Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) is an area of research with a wide range of up-demands, future scenarios, and potential economic influence. HRC is an interdisciplinary field of research that encompasses cognitive sciences, classical robotics, and psychology.
RESULTS: The robot can thus make the optimal decision between actions that expose its capabilities to the human being and take the best steps given the knowledge that is currently available to the human being. Further, the ideal policy can be measured carefully under certain observability assumptions.
CONCLUSION: The system is shown on a collaborative robot and is compared to a state of the art security system. The device is experimentally demonstrated. The new system is being evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively.

Matched MeSH terms: Workplace Violence
Fulltext Preliminary result of effectiveness of education intervention on coping with workplace violence among healthcare workers in health clinics

Mohd Safwan Ibrahim, Ahmad Azuhairi Ariffin, Sri Ganesh Muthiah

Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences, 2019;15(104):97-97.
MyJurnal

Introduction: Workers in health sector are exposed 5 times more workplace violence as compared to workers in other sectors. Their consequences can range from mild to severe, affecting the victim, quality of services and orga-nization. The objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of educational intervention on workplace violence among healthcare workers in health clinics. Methods: This study is a single blinded cluster randomized trial to see the ef-fectiveness of education intervention on coping with workplace violence involving 10 cluster clinics with total 82 respondents in each control and intervention group. Data was collected using pretested questionnaire at baseline, 1-month and 6-months post intervention. The analysis used were descriptive, compared mean at baseline, repeated measures of variance and Mixed Model. Results: Response rate 94% at 1-month due to loss to follow up. Majority of the respondents were female (82.3%), and Malays (83.5%). The prevalence of workplace violence was 27.4% and mostly involved psychological violence (95.6%). There were no significant different between control and interven-tion group characteristic at baseline. Repeated measures MANOVA test was conducted to test intervention effect on dependent variables. The results until 1-month time showed significant difference between intervention and control group on combination of the dependent variables over time in coping (F(1,162)=9.51, p=0.002, and η2=0.06), knowledge (F(1,162)=10.47, p=0.001, and η2=0.061) and confidence (F(1,162)=15.65, p

Matched MeSH terms: Workplace Violence
Fulltext Workplace Violence Experienced by Nurses in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre

Medicine & Health, 2009;4(2):115-121.
MyJurnal

Lately, increasing workplace violence is a problem that requires serious attention by the management of the healthcare sector. This study was carried out to examine workplace violence experienced by nurses in the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre. It aimed to identify the category of nursing staff who formed the highest number of victims, the perpetrators and the common types of workplace violence. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out over a three month period on 55 nurses who had participated voluntarily in this study. The demographic data and data on the violent incident were collected by using a 21-item questionnaire. The reliability and validity with Cronbach’s alpha was 0.872. Information on the most common types of violence, victims and the perpetrators was also collected. The study revealed that workplace violence among the nursing staff was 3.7% with an average of 1.2% being abused per month and one nurse being abused every other day. The study also revealed that the staff nurses were the most common victims and the perpetrators were mainly the patients (40.6%) and the patients’ relatives (37.5%). The most common forms of violence were verbal abuse (31.9%) and verbal threat (23.7%). Physical violence was experienced by 44.4% of the victims. These results suggest that workplace violence is a serious problem which should be addressed in order to create a safe environment for the nurses.

Matched MeSH terms: Workplace Violence
Fulltext Prevalence and associated factors of workplace violence among healthcare workers in Emergency Departments of public hospitals in Melaka

Mohammad Nafis Sahiran, Halimatus Sakdiah Minha, Suhainizam Muhamad Salilludin

Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences, 2019;15(104):99-99.
MyJurnal

Introduction: Workplace violence (WPV) among healthcare workers (HCW) remains a significant public health issue in Malaysia. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of WPV among HCW in Emergency Departments of public hospitals in Melaka. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 231 HCW who were selected in Emergency Departments (ED) from three public hospitals in Melaka through proportionate stratified random sampling method. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaire which consists of three parts (personal and workplace data, workplace violence, and psychosocial workplace environment factors). The period of workplace violence studied was any occurrence of it within six months prior to this study. The data were anal-ysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 24. Results: The prevalence of WPV was found to be 38%, of which 88.9% were psychological violence, and were mostly perpetrated by combinations of type of perpetrators (51.9%). Multiple logistic regression shows that those aged 40 years and below have 5.4 times more likely to experience workplace violence compared to other age group, respondents with low job support has 2.9 times more likely to experience workplace violence compared to its counterpart, and respondents who work in secondary hospital have 2.7 times more likely to experience workplace violence compared to those who work in tertiary hospital. Conclusion: Preventive measures to prevent this issue should be in placed to tackle WPV especially among the at risk groups.

Matched MeSH terms: Workplace Violence
Fulltext The risk factors of workplace violence among healthcare workers in public hospital

Nursyafiqah Zainal, Irniza Rasdi, Suhainizam Muhamad Saliluddin

Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences, 2018;14(102):1-8.
MyJurnal

Workplace violence become a global concern and perceived as a very serious safety and health hazard especially in healthcare setting. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of workplace violence and its associated risk factors among healthcare workers in public hospital. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which involved 136 randomly selected respondents among doctors and nurses in a public hospital in Kuala Lumpur. Data was gathered through a self-administered questionnaire consisted of two standardized questionnaire; Workplace Violence (WPV) and Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ-27). Results: The response rate was 91%. The prevalence of reported WPV was 71.3% where nurses (73.2%) had slightly higher prevalence than doctors (69.2%). The most common forms of WPV was verbal abuse (70.6%), followed by bullying/mobbing (29.4%), physical violence (11.0%), and sexual harassment (6.6%). The perpetrators were mostly among relatives of patients and visitors followed by the patients. Multiple logistic regression shows that respondents working in Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department was 17 times more likely to report workplace violence than those working in Pediatric Department. Also, for every 1 year younger, respondents were 5 times more likely to experience workplace violence controlling for other factors. Conclusion: The prevalence of workplace violent among respondents were high and most common among young workers, especially nurses and those working in A&E Department. Hence, further assessment should be carried out to reduce the identified risk factors and to find ways of solving this issue.

Matched MeSH terms: Workplace Violence