Physical and psychological violence in Jamaica's health sector

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of experiences with physical violence and psychological violence that health staff had in the workplace in Jamaica, and to identify factors associated with those experiences of violence. DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 832 health staff answered the standardized questionnaire that was used in this cross-sectional study. Sampling was done at public facilities, including specialist, tertiary, and secondary hospitals in the Kingston Metropolitan Area; general hospitals in the rural parishes; and primary care centres in urban and rural areas. Sampling was also done in private hospitals and private medical centres. RESULTS: Psychological violence was more prevalant than was physical violence. Verbal abuse has been experienced in the prceeding year by 38.6 percent of the questionnaire respondents, bullying was reported by 12.4 percent, and physical violence was reported by 7.7 percent. In multivariate analyses there was a lower risk of physical violence for health staff who were 55 years or older, worked during the night, or worked mostly with mentally disbled patients, geriatric patients, or HIV/AIDS patients. Staff members working mostly with psychiatric patients faced a higher risk of physical assaults that did other health staff. Of the various health occupations, nurses were the ones mostly likely to be verbally abused. In terms of age ranges, bullying was more commonly experienced by health staff 40-54 years old. CONCLUSION: Violence in the health sector workplace in Jamaica is an occupational hazard that is of public health concern. Evaluation of the environment that creates risks for violence is necessary to guide the formulation of meaningful interventions for the country(AU)