Experiences of workplace violence among professionals working in United Kingdom healthcare settings in the post-COVID-19 era.

Abstract

Background: Workplace violence (WPV) is any form of physical violence, which can be harassment, intimidation, or any other threatening behaviour in the work environment that can involve staff, visitors, clients or customers. WPV is classified as emotional abuse, threats, physical assault, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, and racial harassment. Healthcare professionals are at the receiving end of WPV, at an average of 8-38% of healthcare professionals having suffered physical violence sometime in their careers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, most healthcare professionals experienced different forms of attack, such as obstruction, physical assault, eviction from home, heavy weapon, psychological threat, and denial of services. This project aimed to explore the experiences of WPV among healthcare professionals in the post- COVID-19 era, by studying the recent experiences of WPV among healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom (UK), new contributors to the increase of WPV against healthcare workers after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of WPV on healthcare professionals.

Methods: The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at Liverpool John Moores University. The study adopted an exploratory quantitative approach accompanied by online questionnaires. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was used for the online questionnaires. The questionnaire included an introduction to the researcher and the purpose of the survey, voluntary consent, inclusion criteria, demographics, questions on experience, and witnesses of different forms of WPV. It also contained interventions and consequences for workplace violence since the COVID-19 pandemic. A convenience sampling method was used to recruit participants through email, and a total of 25 LJMU CPD Violence Prevention, Reduction, and Public Health module students working in the NHS UK participated in the study. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and correlational statistics using SPSS.

Result Data analysis revealed that WPV had increased since COVID-19, according to most of the participants (56%, n = 25). The WPVs most experienced were racial harassment (56%, n = 22) and verbal abuse (52%, n = 20); also, verbal abuse (28%, n = 20) and racial harassment (28%, n = 22) were the most witnessed forms of WPV. The highest contributor to increased WPV in the post- COVID-19 era is long waiting hours. The major consequence of WPV is poor work performance and stress, while the most preferred preventive measures for WPV were security measures and an increased number of staff. Nurses and support staff (kitchen/maintenance, security) were the professional groups that have experienced more of the four forms of WPV since the COVID-19 pandemic. 80% (n=25) of the participants reported procedures for reporting WPV at their workplace. There was a significant relationship between healthcare professionals’ experiences of sexual harassment and gender (p =0.01) and age (p =0.03). There was no significant association between the healthcare professionals’ experience of WPV and their work hours.

Conclusion: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, WPV has been on the increase in UK healthcare settings and has affected healthcare professionals adversely through poor work performance and stress. Long waiting hours had been the major contributor to the increase in WPV, with patients and clients as the major perpetrators. Policies should be made to protect nurses and support staff (kitchen/maintenance, security), and to also reduce racial harassment and verbal abuse towards healthcare professionals, as they are the most experienced form of WPV in the post-COVID-19 era. Burnout, which was a major stressor during COVID-19, has gradually reduced after the pandemic. Further research on the effectiveness of digital platforms and social media and the need for more standardized data collection methods will help develop a more comprehensive understanding of WPV in the post-COVID-19 era, as the knowledge will inform evidence-based strategies to help make the workplace safer for both the healthcare professionals and service users.