Workplace violence against healthcare workers: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses was to address workplace violence (WPV) against healthcare workers (HCWs). Several systematic reviews exist in the literature, but the diversity of settings, population considered, and type of violence investigated make it difficult to gain insight and use the vast amount of available data to implement policies to tackle WPV. With this in mind, we conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on WPV against HCWs to examine the global prevalence of the phenomena and its features.

Study design and methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, PubMed, Scopus, and ISI Web of Science were searched for relevant systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in English up to November 2022. Data on authors, year, country, violence type, prevalence (pooled and not), setting, population, and specific considerations were extracted.

Results: A total of 32 systematic reviews were included, 19 of which performed a meta-analysis, investigating overall, physical, and non-physical violence. Even considering the variability of the data, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the scale of the problem. From our review, we found that overall violence prevalence among HCWs was reported to be as high as 78.9%, and nurses working in psychiatric wards were the professionals most impacted.

Conclusion: In conclusion, this umbrella review revealed a high prevalence of WPV among HCWs, which varies between countries, population subgroups, and detection methods. Strengthening recognition of the problem could lead to appropriate local and international strategies to address it.

Keywords: Healthcare workers; Occupational health; Umbrella review; Workplace violence.