Workplace Violence among Nurses at Public Hospital in Bangladesh

Background: Workplace violence (WPV) is a significant issue in healthcare settings all over the world, and nurses are more vulnerable than other members of any clinical care setting. About 1.6 million of people died around the world due to WPV, and many more became injured or suffered from physical and non-physical health problems. Study found that the prevalence of WPV in healthcare was >50% and it was ranged 36.0% to 92.0% among nurses in developed and developing countries. The WPV is not only affecting the health care providers or nurses; it is also affecting the patients’ psychology, quality of care and organizational management structure. Objective: To describe the workplace violence experienced by nurses at a tertiary level in the public hospitals in Bangladesh. Methods: A descriptive study design was employed using 120 nurses choosen by simple random sampling. The data was collected by self-administered questionnaire that consists of socio demographic data and information about workplace violence. Results: The prevalence of WPV was 64.2%” and all cases were experienced with non-physical WPV. There was significant association between age, working experience, and marital status with WPV. Nurses aged below 35 years (39.324, p=.000) and having the working experience of below 12 years (29.32, p=.000) had significantly higher exposed to WPV. Married nurses (8.851, p=.003) also had significantly high experience of WPV than others. Conclusion: The results reveled that there was a high prevalence of WPV experienced by nurses in the public hospitals in Bangladesh. It is expected that this study will provide primary information about the degree of workplace safety for nursing practice and the authorities can take steps to prepare a safety measures for nurses to prevent WPV.