Workplace Violence against Female Nurses in Public Sector Hospitals in Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

This research aims to examine the phenomenon of workplace violence in public hospitals on female nursing staff. The study explores the experiences of nurses towards workplace violence and identifies the influencing factors to workplace violence. This study followed a cross-sectional research design. Female nurses working in public sector hospitals in Lahore was the population of this study. In order to maximize the external validity of results when complete details about population were unknown, mixed methods sampling approach was used. At first stage, five hospitals were randomly selected from a total of 15 public hospitals in Lahore. At the second stage, 10 senior female nurses were purposefully selected as ‘key informants’ and in-depth interviews were conducted using semi-structured interview guide. Thematic analysis was done to analyze the qualitative data. Findings of the study determine different factors like incivility, leader’s role, physical arrangement and legal framework that may contribute towards workplace violence against nurses in hospitals. It is found that physical advancements such as touching and incivility are normal behaviors that happen often at hospitals with female nurses but due to the leader’s positive role and collectivist culture, the ratio of violence is minimized to a great extent. Nurses felt themselves secure at workplace. Several recommendations are also proposed to minimize these reservations in public hospitals.