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Experiences of Workplace Violence Among Healthcare Providers in Myanmar: A Cross-sectional Survey Study

Background Healthcare providers face enormous threats to personal safety from workplace violence (WPV). Prior investigations estimate a highly varied prevalence of WPV in the United States and around the world, including both verbal and physical assault. Little is known about WPV in Myanmar. Only a...

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Autores principales: Lindquist, Benjamin, Feltes, Michelle, Niknam, Kian, Koval, Kathryn W, Ohn, Htoo, Newberry, Jennifer, Strehlow, Matthew, Walker, Rebecca
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7202584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32382453
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7549
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author Lindquist, Benjamin
Feltes, Michelle
Niknam, Kian
Koval, Kathryn W
Ohn, Htoo
Newberry, Jennifer
Strehlow, Matthew
Walker, Rebecca
author_facet Lindquist, Benjamin
Feltes, Michelle
Niknam, Kian
Koval, Kathryn W
Ohn, Htoo
Newberry, Jennifer
Strehlow, Matthew
Walker, Rebecca
author_sort Lindquist, Benjamin
collection PubMed
description Background Healthcare providers face enormous threats to personal safety from workplace violence (WPV). Prior investigations estimate a highly varied prevalence of WPV in the United States and around the world, including both verbal and physical assault. Little is known about WPV in Myanmar. Only a single prior study has evaluated WPV experiences among physicians in Myanmar, reporting an unusually low prevalence of verbal (8.7%) and physical (1.0%) assault. Given this much lower prevalence compared with similar studies in other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), we embarked on a study to identify the prevalence of WPV in a separate cohort of healthcare providers in Myanmar. Methods This was a cross-sectional analysis of WPV prevalence among healthcare providers who attended a national emergency medicine conference in Myanmar in November 2018. The survey instrument was adapted from a validated survey from the Joint Program on Workplace Violence in the Healthcare Sector (International Labour Office, International Council of Nurses, World Health Organization, and Public Services International), which had been used in other global settings. Results Sixty-three participants completed the survey questionnaire, including 35 women (55.6%) and 26 men (41.3%). Among them, 25 (39.7%) were primary care providers. Overall, the combined prevalence of WPV in the previous 12 months was found to be 47.6% (n = 30; 95% CI: 34.9-60.6%). The prevalence of verbal assault was 47.6% (n = 30; 95% CI: 34.9-60.6%), and that of physical assault was 4.8% (n = 3; 95% CI: 1.0-13.3%). Twenty-four participants (42.4%) reported that they were encouraged to report violence in the workplace, and five (8.1%) reported they had received training on how to manage WPV. Respondents who were 30-34 years in age and those working in private facilities were significantly less likely to report WPV on univariate analysis. Conclusion Although our cohort comprised a limited sample of a select group of providers, we found a dramatically higher prevalence of WPV experiences among healthcare providers attending an emergency medicine conference in Myanmar when compared with a prior investigation. Very few participants had received training on WPV, and less than half reported a work culture where WPV reporting is encouraged. To combat healthcare provider shortages, more investigation is required into WPV to understand its impact and identify amelioration strategies.
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spelling pubmed-72025842020-05-07 Experiences of Workplace Violence Among Healthcare Providers in Myanmar: A Cross-sectional Survey Study Lindquist, Benjamin Feltes, Michelle Niknam, Kian Koval, Kathryn W Ohn, Htoo Newberry, Jennifer Strehlow, Matthew Walker, Rebecca Cureus Emergency Medicine Background Healthcare providers face enormous threats to personal safety from workplace violence (WPV). Prior investigations estimate a highly varied prevalence of WPV in the United States and around the world, including both verbal and physical assault. Little is known about WPV in Myanmar. Only a single prior study has evaluated WPV experiences among physicians in Myanmar, reporting an unusually low prevalence of verbal (8.7%) and physical (1.0%) assault. Given this much lower prevalence compared with similar studies in other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), we embarked on a study to identify the prevalence of WPV in a separate cohort of healthcare providers in Myanmar. Methods This was a cross-sectional analysis of WPV prevalence among healthcare providers who attended a national emergency medicine conference in Myanmar in November 2018. The survey instrument was adapted from a validated survey from the Joint Program on Workplace Violence in the Healthcare Sector (International Labour Office, International Council of Nurses, World Health Organization, and Public Services International), which had been used in other global settings. Results Sixty-three participants completed the survey questionnaire, including 35 women (55.6%) and 26 men (41.3%). Among them, 25 (39.7%) were primary care providers. Overall, the combined prevalence of WPV in the previous 12 months was found to be 47.6% (n = 30; 95% CI: 34.9-60.6%). The prevalence of verbal assault was 47.6% (n = 30; 95% CI: 34.9-60.6%), and that of physical assault was 4.8% (n = 3; 95% CI: 1.0-13.3%). Twenty-four participants (42.4%) reported that they were encouraged to report violence in the workplace, and five (8.1%) reported they had received training on how to manage WPV. Respondents who were 30-34 years in age and those working in private facilities were significantly less likely to report WPV on univariate analysis. Conclusion Although our cohort comprised a limited sample of a select group of providers, we found a dramatically higher prevalence of WPV experiences among healthcare providers attending an emergency medicine conference in Myanmar when compared with a prior investigation. Very few participants had received training on WPV, and less than half reported a work culture where WPV reporting is encouraged. To combat healthcare provider shortages, more investigation is required into WPV to understand its impact and identify amelioration strategies. Cureus 2020-04-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7202584/ /pubmed/32382453 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7549 Text en Copyright © 2020, Lindquist et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Emergency Medicine
Lindquist, Benjamin
Feltes, Michelle
Niknam, Kian
Koval, Kathryn W
Ohn, Htoo
Newberry, Jennifer
Strehlow, Matthew
Walker, Rebecca
Experiences of Workplace Violence Among Healthcare Providers in Myanmar: A Cross-sectional Survey Study
title Experiences of Workplace Violence Among Healthcare Providers in Myanmar: A Cross-sectional Survey Study
title_full Experiences of Workplace Violence Among Healthcare Providers in Myanmar: A Cross-sectional Survey Study
title_fullStr Experiences of Workplace Violence Among Healthcare Providers in Myanmar: A Cross-sectional Survey Study
title_full_unstemmed Experiences of Workplace Violence Among Healthcare Providers in Myanmar: A Cross-sectional Survey Study
title_short Experiences of Workplace Violence Among Healthcare Providers in Myanmar: A Cross-sectional Survey Study
title_sort experiences of workplace violence among healthcare providers in myanmar: a cross-sectional survey study
topic Emergency Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7202584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32382453
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7549
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