Workplace Violence among Nurses in Public Hospitals in Vietnam: A Cross-sectional Study

Workplace violence causes negative impacts on the health of nurses, and the prevalence of workplace violence against nurses is rising globally. Studies to date in Vietnam have only concentrated on describing the frequency of types of violence within a specific healthcare facility with small sample sizes. This study aimed to determine the prevalence, impact and responses to workplace violence among registered nurses in public hospitals in Vietnam. This was the first nationwide study that has been carried out. A cross-sectional study design using an online questionnaire was conducted to achieve the study objectives with 2543 nurses working in 163 public hospitals. The frequency distribution and percentages were employed to describe the prevalence of workplace violence and nurses’ responses. The researchers also used the average value of the total score of each question to rank the impacts of workplace violence on nurses. The rate of workplace violence was 30.8%, of which physical and psychological violence were 5.3% and 29.7%, respectively. Among the types of psychological workplace violence, verbal abuse was the most common. The primary violent offenders were patients and caregivers. The biggest impact of workplace violence on nurses included always feeling stressed at work, decreased job satisfaction, and signs of stress or depression. The most common methods of responding to workplace violence were telling the perpetrator to stop or trying to defend themselves. These findings provide information for hospital leaders, health administrators and the Ministry of Health to reduce workplace violence against nurses. This can be done by increasing training on workplace violence management for nurses, creating a safe working environment to decrease the potential risks, and developing an appropriate system for reporting and responding to workplace violence incidents.