Determining the main hazards in a university hospital and an example of violence in workplace

The aim of this study is to assess the dangers in chemotherapy units and oncology departments related to the antineoplastic drugs and to determine the frequency of workplace violence against hospital employees in Adnan Menderes University Research and Education Hospital and their perception of risks and hazards in workplace.This is a cross sectional study conducted between April 2010-April 2011. The whole 1180 employees in the hospital was included in the study and data from 70.2%(785) of these was evaluated. Data was collected by a questionnaire with four parts: general information, physical violence, psychological violence and risk and hazard perception forms. A checklist for the hazard assessment related to antineoplastic drugs was prepared with guidance of the relevant literature. mean±standard deviation, median, 25-75% values, numbers and percents were used for descriptive statistics; chi-square test, Fisher?s exact test and student t test were used for comparisons between groups and logistic regression analysis was used for multivariable analysis.56.6% of participants were exposed to violence throughout their career and 37.2% of them were exposed to violence in the last 12 months. In the last 12 months; 5.2% physical violence, 34.4% verbal insult, 8.8% deterrence and 1.0% sexual harassment cases were seen. There was a significant relationship between the violence exposure and gender, education status, occupation, department and employment status of workers. Women were exposed to violence 1.8 times more than men, research assistants 3.8 times and first contact group 5.7 times more than other workers. Physical violence was more prevalant against men, first contact group, internal medicine workers, 4/B employees and emergency room workers. Verbal insult was more prevalant against women, research assistants, surgical and internal medicine workers, employees within the context of law 2547 and emergency room workers. Deterrence was more prevalant against women, faculty members, internal medicine workers, employees within the context of law 2547 and policlinic workers. More than half of the accidents related to antineoplastic drugs eventuated by breaking and spilling the vial forms of these drugs.Recent studies showed that violence against health care workers markedly increased in last years. Besides the education of employees, determination of risk groups for violence exposure and development of effective strategies by institutional administrations; legal arrangements needed to be done by government to prevent violence against health care workers. In-service education programs should be planned for the whole process of antineoplastic drugs, from storage to elimination, and also periodic examination of the related healthcare workers should be done by the occupational safety and health departments.Keywords: Occupational health, workplace, health care sector, health personnel, violence, antineoplastic drugs.Communication: meteonde@yahoo.com.tr