Cheru Kore, Brhane Mesekel Mekonnen and Tizita Dengia
Background: Ambulance staff works in conditions that are often unpredictable, difficult, and sometimes dangerous, and in which it is difficult to provide adequate security. In Ethiopia there are no research articles which are conducted on prevalence and associated factors of workplace violence in ambulance care providers.
Objectives: To assess the prevalence and factors associated with workplace violence among ambulance care providers in Addis Ababa fire and disaster risk management commission.
Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was employed in Addis Ababa FDRMC. A structured quantitative questionnaire developed by reviewing different literatures and adapted to local situation with necessarily modifications. Simple random sampling method was used to get the required sample size and Strata created based on profession and sample within each stratum was further selected by simple random sampling.
Four staffs were distributed questionnaires at the 9 branch who gave consent after clear explanation of the objectives of the study and confidentiality. Data was entered Epi-data version 7.2 and cleaned for missed values and analyzed using SPSS version 24 statistical packages. Binary logistic regression was performed to see the existence of association between workplace violence and independent variables. Then those independent variables which was significantly associated with workplace violence in binary logistic regression analyses with a P-value <0.05 was included in the multivariable logistic regression analysis to identify the independent predictors of workplace violence.
Result: This research showed high prevalence of violence and we have got that staff had been exposed to physical violence 24.6%, verbal violence 51.5%, mobbed/bulled 31.6% and sexual violence 28.7%, respectively age, sex, direct physical contact and interaction with the patient were statistically significant variables (<0.05).
Conclusion and Recommendation: Majority of FDRMC ambulance staff were violated by the general public. Reporting procedure and workplace violence prevention mechanism should implement in the organization.
