Assessing the Prevalence of Workplace Violence against Nurses Working in Public Health Facilities in Anambra State

Abstract

Background of the study: Workplace violence among healthcare workers in public health facilities including nurses is one of the major issues in health systems today hampering the wellbeing and social improvement of the society. This study assessed the prevalence of workplace violence against nurses working at public health facilities in Anambra state. 

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive design was employed in carrying out the study among nurses working at public secondary and tertiary levels of care facilities in Anambra state. Multi-staged sampling technique was used to select sample 5 facilities and sample size of two hundred and ninety-two nurses. WHO standardized questionnaire on workplace violence was adapted for data collections which were analysed with Statistical Software Package version 16.0. 

Results: The results revealed that 75% of the nurses have experienced workplace violence related to their work with verbal violence (60.3%) as the most experience and sexual violence (2.8%) was least experienced with visitors / patient’s relatives as the most common perpetrators of workplace violence against nurses. 

Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of workplace violence among nurses working at the public health facilities in Anambra state. It is imperative for strategic policies by the national and subnational governments to address this menace.