Investigation of Workplace Violence Against Midwives: A Systematic Review

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 PhD candidate of reproductive health, Student Research Committee, Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IR Iran

2 Master student of Midwifery, Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Gonabad University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Abstract

Introduction:Workplace violence is defined as an aggressive behavior toward the staff performing their duties at the workplace. This violence occurs in various forms, such as verbal abuse, physical abuse, assault, rape, harassment, bullying, threats, as well as ugly and unpleasant behaviors. Workplace violence can occur in any occupational environments or positions. Several studies have shown that violence takes place in midwifery workplaces. Regarding this, the present review was conducted to investigate the evidence on violence against midwives.
Materials and Methods:The articles related to the subject of interest and published until Dec 2018 were searched in several databases, including SID, Irandoc, Scopus, Pubmed, and ISI Web of Science, with no time limitation using the following medical subject headings: “Workplace aggression”, “Bullying”, “Workplace violence”, “Verbal violence”, “Physical violence”, and “Midwife”. For reviewing the articles, a "data extraction form" was designed based on the research objective. The results were reported qualitatively.
Results: Among 214 articles retrieved in the initial search, seven articles met the inclusion criteria, including 1, 2, and 4 studies withcross-sectional, descriptive-exploratory, and descriptive-analytic designs, respectively. Verbal violence had the highest prevalence rate (83.3%), 60% of which was committed by patients’ companions.
Conclusion:Despite the high level of violence in midwifery and according to the percentages stated in the articles, it is necessary to investigate this issue in Iran in order to identify the factors influencing violence, source of violence, midwife's experiences of violence, and its consequences. It is suggested that authorities at each hospital identify violence and sources of violence in the midwifery department with a standard questionnaire. They should also help resolve workplace violence because it can affect their job performance and productivity, which in turn negatively affect the quality of care and health of their patients.

Keywords

References

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Navid No
Volume 21, Issue 68
March 2019
Pages 50-61

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