Workplace Violence against Hospital Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Israel: Implications for Public Health

Keren Dopelt, Nadav Davidovitch, Anna Stupak, Rachel Ben Ayun, Anna Lev Eltsufin and Chezy Levy
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Keren Dopelt: Department of Public Health, Ashkelon Academic College, Ben Tzvi St. 12, Ashkelon 78211, Israel
Nadav Davidovitch: Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Science, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
Anna Stupak: Department of Public Health, Ashkelon Academic College, Ben Tzvi St. 12, Ashkelon 78211, Israel
Rachel Ben Ayun: Department of Public Health, Ashkelon Academic College, Ben Tzvi St. 12, Ashkelon 78211, Israel
Anna Lev Eltsufin: Department of Public Health, Ashkelon Academic College, Ben Tzvi St. 12, Ashkelon 78211, Israel
Chezy Levy: Barzilai University Medical Centre, Hahistadrout St. 2, Ashkelon 78306, Israel

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-12

Abstract: Workplace violence (WPV) against healthcare workers, a serious public health problem with profound implications, has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the incidence of different types of WPV in a public hospital in Israel during the pandemic and analyzes the factors associated with its occurrence. A cross-sectional study was performed via an online questionnaire with 486 workers at a government hospital in Israel. Data were collected about sociodemographic and occupational characteristics, exposure to different forms of WPV over the preceding six months, and the responsibility and reasons for WPV from the workers’ perspective. Approximately 71% of respondents were exposed to WPV and 64% perceived that WPV escalated during the pandemic. The prevalence of verbal/psychological and physical WPV were 69 and 11%, respectively. The main reason for WPV was frustration over long wait times (70%). The escalation during the pandemic can be attributed to patients’ or relatives’ anxiety and mental states following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (72%), an increase in waiting time since the pandemic began (54%), lack of hospital resources to care for everyone (45%), and the inability to visit critically ill relatives with COVID-19 (44%). Increased exposure to WPV was attributed to lower seniority, working in emergency or internal departments, and being a nurse or a doctor. The findings raise an urgent need to develop strategies to reduce WPV in hospitals at all levels: national, organizational, and individual. Further research could focus on the effectiveness of innovative strategies and interventions to prevent violence against healthcare workers.

Keywords: healthcare workers; workplace violence; hospital; COVID-19; Israel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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