Encouraging employees to report verbal violence in primary health care in Serbia: A cross-sectional study

Workplace violence is a serious and multidimensional problem that adversely affects professional and personal lives of employees. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and characteristics of verbal violence as a part of psychological violence among employees in primary health care in Be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zdravstveno varstvo 2017-03, Vol.56 (1), p.11-17
Main Authors: Fisekovic Kremic, Marina B, Terzic-Supic, Zorica J, Santric-Milicevic, Milena M, Trajkovic, Goran Z
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
contributing factors
dejavniki spodbujanja
Health care industry
health workers
Original Scientific
Threats
verbal workplace violence
verbalno nasilje na delovnem mestu
Workplace violence
zdravstveni delavci
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Summary:Workplace violence is a serious and multidimensional problem that adversely affects professional and personal lives of employees. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and characteristics of verbal violence as a part of psychological violence among employees in primary health care in Belgrade, and to identify contributing factors of verbal violence in the workplace. In this cross-sectional study, the final analysis included 1526 employees, using multi-stage sampling. Data were collected using the questionnaire Workplace Violence in the Health Sector Country Case Studies Research, developed by ILO/ICN/WHO/PSI. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The general response rate was 86.8% (1526/1757). It was found that 47.8% of the participants were subjected to verbal violence. The main source of verbal violence was patient/client, 55.6% of employees did not report the incident. Among those who did not report the incident, 74.9% believed that reporting violence was useless. The interaction with patients (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.02-2.06) and work between 6pm and 7am (OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.01-1.60) were significant contributing factors of verbal violence. The results are indicative of a high prevalence of verbal violence against employees in primary health centres, which could have undesirable consequences. Conducting a better organizational measure and encouraging employees to report workplace violence could reduce the prevalence of verbal violence.
ISSN:0351-0026
1854-2476
1854-2476
DOI:10.1515/sjph-2017-0002