Violence study of healthcare workers and systems in the Caribbean: ViSHWaS-Caribbean study

Table 1 Socio-Demographic characteristics of the ViSHWaS-Caribbean study participants

Demographics	n = 225	Percentage (%)
Gender
Male	81	36.0
Female	137	60.9
Transgender	0	0.0
Gender variant/non-confirming	0	0.0
Other/prefer not to disclose	7	3.1
Skipped	0	0.0
Age (yr)
18-25	42	18.7
26-35	115	51.1
36-45	53	23.6
46-55	11	4.9
56-65	4	1.8
65+	0	0.0
Skipped	0	0.0
United States-African American	13	5.8
United States-Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander	1	0.4
Black-African	65	28.9
South Asian	1	0.4
Hispanic/Latino	81	36.0
Mixed race	17	7.6
Other	42	18.7
Skipped	5	2.2
Type of institution
Government academic	110	48.9
Government-non-academic	17	7.6
Private academic	21	9.3
Private non-academic	5	2.2
Community hospital	51	22.7
Military hospital	1	0.4
Mission/non-profit hospital	8	3.6
Other	9	4.0
Skipped	3	1.3
Years of experience
< 1	16	7.1
1 to 2	54	24.0
2 to 5	64	28.4
6 to 10	44	19.6
11 to 20	36	16.0
21 to 30	7	3.1
< 30	1	0.4
Skipped	3	1.3
Work position
Administration	9	4.0
Nurse practitioner	2	0.9
Attending physician	49	21.8
Auxiliary/support staff	4	1.8
Dentist/dental surgeon	2	0.9
EMT	0	0.0
Fellow in training	10	4.4
Medical student	71	31.6
Occupational therapist	0	0.0
Pharmacist (PharmD)	1	0.4
Physical therapist	3	1.3
Physician assistant	2	0.9
Registered nurse	11	4.9
Researcher	2	0.9
Resident/junior resident in training	24	10.7
Respiratory therapist	0	0.0
Other	35	15.6
Skipped	0	0.0

Table 2 Violence characteristics and attributes

Violence of any form at workplace	Count (n = 225)	Percentage (%)
Total yes response - self + colleague (n = 225)	128	56.9
Yes response-self (n = 225)	88	39.1
Yes response - colleague (n =137)	40	17.8
No response - self + colleague (n = 225)	97	43.1
Form of violence	Count (n = 225)	Percentage (%)
Verbal violence	108	48.0
Emotional violence	55	24.4
Physical violence	31	13.8
Cultural violence	14	6.2
Sexual violence	10	4.4
Online/virtual/cyber harassment	6	2.7
Other	1	0.4
Type of aggressor	Count (n =128)	Percentage (%)
More than one type of aggressor	19	14.8
Colleague	9	7.0
Patient	23	18.0
Patient and relative and/or caregiver	8	6.3
Patient and relative and/or caregiver	50	39.1
Supervisor	18	14.1
Frequency of violence; during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic	Count (n =128)	Percentage (%)
Increased	37	28.9
About the same	62	48.4
Decreased	28	21.9
Number of violent episodes in past one year	Survey respondent-self (n = 88)	Survey respondent-colleague (n = 40)
Every day	1	0
About once a week	8	3
A few times a week	3	0
Once or twice a month	24	10
Once or twice a quarter	18	26
Once or twice a year	34	0

Table 3 Violence awareness and outcomes

Results	Count	Percentage (%)
Violence incidents reported to the administration or hospital or police (n = 128)	62	48.40
Availability of violence reporting procedures at hospital (n = 225)	113	50.20
Awareness of occupational safety and health standards (n = 225)	79	35.10
Training in violence management (n = 225)	42	18.70
Effect of violence on perception of career	Count (n = 128)	Percentage (%)
Felt less motivated/decreased job satisfaction	72	56
More determined to continue serving	12	9
Quitting the current work-place	9	7
Quitting the current department	4	3
Quitting the profession/early retirement	4	3
No change	26	20

Table 4 Univariate and multivariate regression analysis for violence estimation

Variable	Univariate					Multivariate
	OR	Std Err.	95%CI for B		P value	OR	Std Err.	95%CI for B		P value
			LL	UL				LL	UL
Gender1
Female	2.08	0.63	1.16	3.76	0.014	1.84	0.63	0.95	3.59	0.071
Work setting2
Public setting	1.44	0.57	0.66	3.13	0.358	1.25	0.56	0.52	2.99	0.618
Other	0.60	0.53	0.11	3.36	0.559	0.79	0.74	0.13	4.92	0.804
Profession3
Medical student	1.89	1.56	0.38	9.5	0.440	1.89	2.29	0.18	20.20	0.598
Nurse	4.00	3.68	0.66	24.30	0.132	5.30	6.50	0.48	58.61	0.173
Physician	4.84	3.93	0.98	23.76	0.052	7.10	8.15	0.75	67.37	0.088
Other HCW	2.14	1.84	0.41	11.42	0.360	3.10	3.65	0.31	31.29	0.337
Age4
26-35	0.80	0.29	0.39	1.63	0.534	0.37	0.18	0.14	0.97	0.043
36-45	0.95	0.40	0.42	2.15	0.90	0.44	0.26	0.14	1.39	0.160
46-55	1.11	0.76	0.29	4.22	0.88	0.42	0.41	0.63	2.82	0.372
Years of experience5
1 to 2	0.93	0.57	0.28	3.10	0.901	-	-	-	-	-
2 to 5	1.61	0.96	0.50	5.16	0.427	-	-	-	-	-
6 to 10	1.52	0.94	0.45	5.14	0.498	-	-	-	-	-
11 to 20	2.20	1.39	0.63	7.62	0.214	-	-	-	-	-
21 to 30	1.65	1.54	0.26	10.31	0.592	-	-	-	-	-
> 30	0.93	0.57	0.28	3.10	0.901	-	-	-	-	-
Night shift frequency6
High	2.22	0.82	1.08	4.56	0.03	1.72	0.73	0.75	3.95	0.20

¹Reference female category is "male".

²Reference work setting category is "private".

³Reference profession category is "administrative or researcher".

⁴Reference years of experience category is "18-25".

⁵Reference years of experience category is "< 1".

⁶Reference frequency of night shifts category is "low".

Values are significant at 0.05. HCW: Healthcare workers; Std Err: Standard error; LL: Lower limit; UL: Upper limit.