Violencia en el ámbito laboral e intención de abandonar el puesto de trabajo

The year 2023 will not end without the EvaluAES group rearing its head again in this Blog that offers us a precious space to disseminate our activity. For this entry, our colleague Victoria Serra-Sastre has volunteered to show her head on behalf of the group and tell us about her research work presented at the XII EvaluAES Workshop (link to the video of the presentation). here), which evaluates the effect of violence in the workplace on leaving the job. We hope you enjoy it! If you would like to have a space to tell your work in progressreceive feedback from a commentator, and in front of an audience more than motivated for quality health research, the next XIII EvaluAES Workshop to be held in May 2024 in Seville is your place. Stay tuned for the “call for abstracts”!

EvaluAES working committee

Background

According to data from the National Health System in England (NHS), in 2022, during the last 12 months approximately, 15% of its staff had experienced physical violence in their work environment. That same year, the percentage of workers who reported having experienced a case of psychological violence reached 40%. These percentages have remained relatively constant since 2015. In the vast majority of cases, these attacks are carried out by patients or their families, although there are also cases of attacks by managers and colleagues in the work environment.

The World Health Organization defines workplace violence as “all incidents in which a person is subjected to mistreatment, threats or attacks in circumstances related to their work, including the journey between home and work, with the implication that their safety, well-being and health are explicitly or implicitly threatened.” Victims of violent attacks in the workplace suffer significant consequences that go beyond the abuse, and suffer a deterioration in physical and mental health, trauma, anxiety, depression and reduced job satisfaction. The economic impact of workplace violence is high. Recent estimates, just for the case of sexual harassment, suggest that the cost of this type of violence is equivalent to a 10% of the employee’s salary.

For years, the literature on determinants of job satisfaction in the healthcare sector has focused mainly on factors related to salary conditions and characteristics of the work environment. The labor flexibility, working night shifts, job security, number of overtime hours worked, be employed in the public or private sector and the working hours, These are aspects that influence the job offer decision for health professionals. In the particular case of the nursing profession, it has been found that job satisfaction decreases when nurses suffer racial harassment. However, the impact of violence at work, particularly on healthcare workers, has not received much attention. In this article we study the impact of violence in the workplace on the intention to leave the job for NHS healthcare staff.

Data and methods

We used data from the employment survey of NHS healthcare staff in England (Survey of NHS staff), in its waves between 2018 and 2022. The surveys include a battery of questions about working conditions, health and well-being in the workplace, individual characteristics and information on workplace violence. The questions about workplace violence contain information about:

(1) the type of person carrying out the violent act: patient, coworker, or manager; and

(2) the type of violence: physical or psychological.

For the statistical analysis we use a regression model two way fixed effects and techniques propensity score matching. Using a difference-in-differences model, our data has also allowed us to analyze the impact of the pandemic on violence in the work environment.

Victoria Serra-Sastre presenting her work at the XII EvaluA Workshop held in May 2023 in Bilbao

Results

Our results show a significant effect of violence in the workplace on the intention to quit the job. Physical violence increases the probability of resignation by 10 percentage points, while the effect is 21 percentage points when the violence is psychological. The effects are heterogeneous depending on the type of person who carries out the violent act. The greatest impact is found in violent acts carried out by managers, followed by violence by co-workers and, to a lesser extent, attacks by patients. The probability of leaving work is higher the higher the frequency of violent attacks. The results indicate that the response to workplace violence differs by occupational group, gender, age and ethnic group. The estimates from the difference-in-differences model suggest that Covid-19 increases the intention to abandon between 1 and 2 percentage points in victims of violence, although without significant differences in those cases in which a colleague or manager carries out the violent act. The previous result suggests that, during the pandemic, health professionals justified the violence of their colleagues as an acceptable reaction given the exceptional circumstances that were experienced.

The results of this article could be useful for the design of retention policies for healthcare professionals, especially in the current context of shortage of healthcare professionals in the NHS.