Venus Medina-Maldonado
Pontifical University of Ecuador, Ecuador
Title: Perceptions of the violence in the workplace among nursing staff - preliminary results
Biography:
Dr Venus Medina-Maldonado currently works at the Nursing Faculty, Catholic Pontifical University of Ecuador as lecturer and researcher. She teaches subjects such as historical context and development in nursing, Family Nursing, Evidence based Nursing and Dissertation, her research interest is focused on preventing and responding to gender based Violence.
Abstract:
Several studies have established the prevalence of workplace violence in the health sector being the nursing staff more likely to experience physical violence and bullying than other health worker’s. In spite of this, in Ecuador only a few researches have directly investigated the issues on nurses’ in association to type of violence, perpetrators, well-being affectation and protecting measures available in the health institutions. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: A qualitative study with phenomenological method was carried out in (01) major hospital in Quito, Ecuador. Participants were selected from a convenience sample and, before starting the discussion, were given information consent forms to sign. Participants were n = 41/210 professional nurses and the considered selection criteria were being professional, over age 18, and being employers at the hospital as minimum 2 years. The technique selected in data collection was Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Data were collected from Jun. 2018 to Jul. 2018. Discussions were recorded and stored in voice files using a digital recorder. The Mayring’s approach was used for the interpretative process. The feminist epistemological framework was utilized to analyze the power imbalances in the work relationship and the context in which it occurs. Findings: Nursing staff in this study expressed during discussion lack of clarity about what constitutes violence in the workplace, lack of understanding about the magnitude of the problem, nurses affected mostly try to ignore the situation because they considered this to be a typical incident in the workplace, they did not report the situation and it has caused underregistration. The aggressors were mostly staff members, supervisor and general public. When nurses narrated their experiences with violence the researchers identified verbal abuse, bulling/mobbing, sexual harassed and physical violence. Conclusion & Significance: The evidence allowed us to admit that the situation is a significance problem in magnitude and severity. Our recommendations will be oriented toward the implementation of a preventative and minimizing aggression program in the Hospital.