Exploration of workplace violence experience among nurses at a selected university teaching hospital in Rwanda.

Abstract

Title: Exploration of workplace violence experience among nurses at a selected University Teaching Hospital in Rwanda. Background: Workplace violence (WPV) is a global problem in the health sector especially in the hospitals affecting healthcare works’ job satisfaction and performance. Healthcare workers are affected especially nurses, WPV is present in different forms associated with various factors. The aim of this study was to explore WPV experience among nurses working at a selected University Teaching Hospital in Rwanda Method: The research approach used were descriptive cross-sectional design and quantitative. The stratified random sampling was used to recruit 195 participants among 379 nurses. The data was collected using a structured, validated, and self-administered questionnaire that was adapted from the ILO, ICN, WHO, and PSI. Frequencies and percentages were used for analyzing descriptive data. Chi-square test was used for evaluating association between variables. Results: The findings revealed that (58.5%, n=114) of nurses have experienced some types of WPV in the 12 months preceding this study, among them (44.6%, n=108) of nurses were verbally abused when working with the patients/clients. The nurses providing emergency care, the nurses working at the emergency department and nurses working with vulnerable patients like HIV/AIDS patients were associated with WPV Chi2 (1, n=195), P=<0.001). The psychological concerns are the most consequences of WPV among nurses working at a selected University Teaching hospital in Rwanda. Conclusions: Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that the hospital management needs to be aware of the WPV, develop and implement appropriate policies and strategies, and avoid WPV. These strategies could enable nurses to be concentrated psychologically to their job resulting in improvement of service delivery. Recommendations: The researcher suggested that the hospital leaders and managers in nursing should be aware and understand WPV in the healthcare settings. The future crosscountry study using both quantitative and qualitative approaches is suggested to explore all information regarding WPV in Rwanda hospital settings.