Frequency of Healthcare Workers’ Exposure to Violence in the City Center of Sivas

Objectives: Violence in health care facilities is defined as; the case of any threat attitude, verbal threat, physical assault and sexual assault caused by patients, their relatives or other individuals. It is widely accepted that; among all occupational groups, health care industry workers, who are in direct contact with individuals in difficult situations, are more and more victims of workplace violence. In this study, the health workers’ frequency of exposure to violence who work in the city center was investigated . Materials and Methods: In Sivas, 2,927 health workers are working. The sample size has been identified as 496 people with of 95% level of trust and 4% margin of error. The stratified sampling based on the occupational groups was applied and the individuals from any occupational group were selected by using simple random sampling method. The data were collected via face-to-face interview upon the consent of subjects. Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences(SPSS) Version 20.0 software. Chi-Square test was used in analyzing the data and statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: Of the 496 people enrolled in the study; 23.29% were physicians, 22.44% nurses, 15.38% midwives, 6.41% technicians, 3.42% security, 1.50% laboratory and 27.56% were other health care workers. Of the health workers, 49.79% and 95.51% have faced at least one type of violence respectively in the past year or at any time while they have been working in the healthcare industry. The most common type of violence exposure is the verbal violence by 73.72%. Security guards are the most frequent violence victims by 93.75%, State Hospitals are the most common health agencies of violence by 57.96 %, and emergency service is the most common service suffering violence by 70.67% (p<0.001). The ones, who are most frequently engaged in violence against healthcare professionals are the patients and patients’ relatives (36.11%). Conclusion: As a result; violence against health care workers in our province is a major problem and it is noteworthy that of all kinds of violence are at a high rate. It is necessary to educate and inform the society about violence, and to pay more attention to security measures in healthcare facilities.