Workplace violence against mental health professionals in AddisAbaba, Ethiopia: a facility-based qualitative study

Background: Violence is a global public health problem that results in multidimensional negative consequences. Several studies showed that mental health professionals are vulnerable to workplace violence. In addition, there are several studies on workplace violence in psychiatry practice in Ethiopia. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the knowledge and the perceptions of mental health professionals, particularly psychiatry resident physicians and clinical and psychiatry nurses on workplace violence Method: This study design was a qualitative study design to research about knowledge and perceptions of psychiatry residents, psychiatry nurses and clinical nurses working at St Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study had collected six focus group discussions (FGDs) over 2 months’ period and 26 in-depth interviews with those with exposure to workplace violence. Each FGDs had six to eight participants. Data analysis was thematic analysis where the researchers inductively followed data to generate themes and subthemes. The approach was an inductive constructionist approach to extract explicit data from the themes using a semantic or explicit theoretical framework. Results and discussion : The results revealed five thematic areas and several subthemes under each theme. The five themes were knowledge of workplace violence, workplace safety, and response to violent behaviors in the Workplace, structural factors contributing to workplace violence and perceived support and attitudes towards workplace violence. Verbal violence was the most reported form of violence at the workplace by both psychiatry residents and both psychiatry nurses and clinical nurses. The participants agreed that there were structural barriers to working effectively including limited security in the hospital. In addition to this, they felt lonely in the workplace. The participants mentioned that workplace had several other limitations including lack of alarm system and security personnel. They also had a perception that the technical or expert support they received from the facility during work was not enough. Some clinical nurses and psychiatry nurses demonstrated high levels of frustration that reached to consider leaving the job. The present study also found that safety guidelines are lacking and there are important points that need improvement to decrease workplace violence. Conclusion: The authors recommend that future studies to assess mental-wellbeing and satisfaction of mental health professionals in psychiatry facilities in Ethiopia is important.