Abstract:
Background: Workplace violence is one of the global health concerns worldwide. The violence
toward health care workers is considered a global community health concern. Since they are at
the front of the health care system and with the closest contact with patients, identifying the
prevalence and associated factors is crucial for prevention. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of
study in our setup addressing this issue. Hence this study aimed to fill the literature gap and the
study finding might give a clue for intervention.
Objective: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of workplace violence and associated
factors among health professionals working in JMC, Southwest Ethiopia, 2023.
Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among health care
professionals working at Jimma medical center from Oct 1-30, 2023. The data were recruited
from 303. The study participants were selected using Stratified random sampling method. Data
was collected using self-administered questionnaire, which is adapted from ILO/ICN/WHO/PSI
country based survey questionnaire. The collected data entered into EpiData 3.1 and exported to
SPSS
25 for further analysis. Logistic regression analysis was done to identify covariates
associated with the outcome variables. Statistical significance was considered at a p-value of
less than 0.05(95% CI).
Results: WPV among health care workers was 71% in the last 12 month, of these 69.6% was
verbal followed by 21.5% physical and 4.3% sexual. Females & those with work experience 1-
4yr countered more violence. The perceived contributing factors were Misunderstanding, long
waiting time for service & stressful emergency situation. Nurses had increased odds of WPV by 3
(AOR: 3.370, 95%CI: 1.605, 7.075) than Medical interns and Resident had increased odds of
WP
V by 2 (AOR: 2.288, 95%CI: 1.062, 4.932) times than Medical intern. Health professional
working in Surgical department had increased risk by 5.5 (AOR: 5.517, 95%CI: 1.814, 16.78)
times than those working Pediatrics department. Absence of reporting procedures increases the
probability of WPV by 5 times (AOR: 5.476, 95%CI: 3.026, 9.485) & Absence of satisfaction
increase the risk of WPV by 2 times (AOR: 2.649, 95%CI: 1.051, 4.813).
