The pandemic of workplace violence: the gendered experience of emergency medicine trainees

Abstract

Objectives Many healthcare providers experience physical and verbal abuse from patients and their visitors. This abuse is a form of workplace violence and likely has negative implications for the providers wellbeing. The objective of our study was to determine the rates of nonphysical workplace violence against emergency medicine trainees with a focus on prevalence by provider gender. Methods This was a single center prospective cohort study using tally counters to track occurrences of nonphysical workplace violence perpetrated by patients and their visitors against emergency medicine trainees in the adult Emergency Department. Results There were a total of 39 completed responses submitted by 22 respondents. Of the 22 respondents, 14 identified as women and 8 identified as men. On average, both men and women experienced near daily occurrences of nonphysical workplace violence. However, women experienced higher rates compared to their colleagues who are men with a mean of 3 occurrences per day versus 0.9, respectively. Conclusion We found that women trainees were more likely to experience nonphysical workplace violence from patients and their visitors.