Mental Health Status of Medical Staff Exposed to Hospital Workplace Violence: A Prospective Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE: Hospital workplace violence is one of the most frequently reported types of workplace violence in the world, and it harms the mental and physical health of medical staff. Existing research on workplace violence focused more on cross-sectional studies, than longitudinal studies. Therefore, this study examined the dynamic impact of hospital workplace violence on the mental health of medical staff, with the aim of providing appropriate countermeasures and suggestions for hospitals to develop targeted psychological intervention measures in time for medical staff who experience workplace violence. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 112 medical staff who had experienced workplace violence in the hospital for the first time were chosen. SETTING: An unconditional latent variable growth curve model was established based on the average value of the general health scale scores of medical staff, and gender and violence types (intimidation threats, physical violence) as control variables. Each medical staff was assessed for depression and anxiety at 4 different time points and the changes in the trajectories was observed. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the incidence of mental health and anxiety among medical staff at different observation times. There were significant individual differences in the initial mental health status, growth rate of anxiety and depression of medical staff. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitals should undertake various psychological intervention strategies based on the staff's mental health to safeguard those who have experienced workplace violence.