Ankara Medical Journal

Öz

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.