Workplace violence – health institutions in Serbia in focus

Abstract

Introduction/Objective Health workers are five times more likely to be exposed to workplace violence than other workers are. The goal of this paper is to present an overview of the situation related to violence against health workers and other employees in health institutions, before amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia by the end of 2024.

Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out over a three-month period, from July 10, 2024, to October 10, 2024, in the form of a purpose-designed online survey, voluntarily completed by 125 respondents.

Results The survey showed that 74.4% of participants had experienced violence. Psychological abuse dominated. Verbal abuse was experienced by 68.8% of workers, psychological-nonverbal by 64.4%, and physical violence by 12.8% of participants in the survey. There was no statistically significant difference in experienced workplace violence in relation to sex, place of residence, nationality, marital status, number of children, or level of education, type of specialization, type of institution, presence of security staff, activity on social networks, number of their workplaces, and trade union membership. Workplace violence decreased as the length of service increased. Managers experienced less violence. The dominant cause of violence in general hospitals is communication problems and a patient’s psychological disorder, while in health centers it is the non-acceptance of organizational limitations.

Conclusion We provide proposals that would contribute to the overall prevention of violence at workplaces and to the protection of healthcare workers.

Keywords: workplace violence; health; aggression; survey; law