PREVALENCE, RISK FACTORS AND PREVENTION OF WORKPLACE VIOLENCE AGAINST HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN FCTA HOSPITALS

INTRODUCTION Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behaviour that occurs at the work site. Globally, healthcare workers are often subjected to physical and psychological abuse. This can lead to trauma, burnout, and affects the quality of care provided to patients. In Nigeria, data on the magnitude of the problem is limited. OBJECTIVES The study aimed to investigate the prevalence, risk factors, effects, and preventive measures of workplace violence against healthcare workers in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHOD A cross sectional study of workplace violence within FCT healthcare settings was conducted. Self-administered questionnaires were filled by 205 healthcare workers and the data analysed using the IBM SPSS statistics 27.0.0.0 software. RESULT 58.5% of sample population experienced at least 1 form of violence in the last one year with verbal violence being predominant (54.1%) which was followed by tribal harassment (17.6%), physical violence (13.2%) and the least being sexual harassment (6.8%). Observations suggest that while a notable proportion of healthcare staff have witnessed acts of violence, a smaller but substantial fraction have experienced it personally. Patients and their relatives were the largest perpetrators, with staff members of lower seniority levels and night shift workers being at a higher risk. Staff members believed staff shortage, high workload, low socio-economic status of patients were major contributors. Workplace violence increased job dissatisfaction, worry about violence and even caused Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) in the case of physical violence. Participants agreed that improving the working environment, increasing staff numbers including security, better human resource development and patient education via media campaigns will prevent the problem. CONCLUSION Prevalence of workplace violence against healthcare workers in the FCT hospitals was high especially verbal violence and poses a serious challenge to the health sector, with implications for the safety and mental health of healthcare professionals, and by extension, the quality of patient care. This study underscores the need for strategic interventions to combat the issue.