Cross-sectional analysis on workplace violence among intensive care unit nurses in tertiary general hospitals in Henan Province

Background Hospital workplace violence has a serious impact on the physical and mental health of medical staff. However there are few studies for intensive care unit (ICU) nurses.

Objective This cross-sectional study investigates the prevalence and influencing factors of hospital workplace violence reported by nurses working in ICU of tertiary general hospitals in Henan Province, and provides suggestions to effectively improve the workplace environment.

Methods A multi-stage sampling method was used to randomly select ICU nurses from 29 tertiary general hospitals in 18 prefecture-level cities in Henan Province in 2019. The prevalence and characteristics of hospital workplace violence suffered by ICU nurses were investigated using an online Hospital Workplace Violence Questionnaire. Univariate analysis was performed by chisquare test, and multiple analysis was performed by logistic regression to analyze the factors that may lead to hospital workplace violence towards ICU nurses.

Results A total of 1 937 questionnaires were received with 1 883 valid questionnaires, and the valid recovery rate was 97.21%. The prevalence rate of hospital workplace violence was 44.1% (830/1 883), and the prevalence rates of verbal abuse, threats, physical assaults, and sexual harassment were 43.7% (823/1 883), 27.4% (516/1 883), 20.7% (390/1 883), and 4.6% (86/1 883), respectively. There were no significant differences in the prevalence rate of hospital workplace violence among ICU nurses of different gender, age, education background, job title, length of service, marital status, or being only child or not groups (P>0.05), but the scores of perceptions and attitudes towards hospital workplace violence were different between those who had experienced and those who had not(6.63±0.92) vs (6.85±0.95) (P < 0.001). The results of logistic regression analysis showed that the ICU nurses' perceptions and attitudes were the influencing factors of hospital workplace violence occurrence (OR=0.786, 95%CI:0.711~0.868, P < 0.001).

Conclusion Almost half of the selected ICU nurses suffer from hospital workplace violence, mainly verbal abuse. Nurses' perceptions and attitudes towards hospital workplace violence are possibly a protective factor against violence events. Therefore, managers should strengthen training on relevant knowledge and skills of ICU nurses to prevent workplace violence.