Violence towards emergency residents in Malaysia: the unforeseen perpetrators among us

Introduction: Workplace violence in the emergency department (ED) is a common occurrence existing worldwide affecting staffs across all roles, compromising the safety, health, self-esteem, and job satisfaction of healthcare workers. Combating workplace violence in healthcare settings is a huge challenge as the true scope of the problem is not known due to insufficient documentation or underreporting. Thus, this study aims to explore and examine the magnitude and attitude of ED residents (ERs) towards workplace violence.
Methods: This single centre, questionnaire-based, anonymous, and self-administered cross-sectional survey involving 63 ERs. A Chi-square test examined the relationship between variables. Composite measures condensed the vast number of variables data into a single indicator.
Results: Workplace violence in ED reported by 93.6% of respondents. Verbal assault (88.9%) was the predominant form of violence. Unforeseen perpetrators include physicians (17.5%), non-ED staffs of hospital (17.5%) and other ED staffs (14.3%). Common site of violence occurrence was non-critical area (81%). There was no significant relationship between attitude and gender (p = 0.93) or race (p = 0.70) or designation (p = 0.45). Composite measure of attitude scores revealed 50.8% of respondents had positive attitude towards workplace violence in ED.
Conclusion: Violence among ERs is an undeniable existence. Co-worker as the perpetrator is not acceptable at all. A continuous effort from ERs, ED staffs and ED managers is required to mitigate the growing phenomenon of workplace violence in ED.