Sexual harassment against nurses is a major workplace
problem causing adverse psychological effects and may affect the occupational
performance of the nurses. This study aimed to assess the magnitude of this
problem, and its characteristics and consequences among the nursing staff in
Tanta University Hospitals, Gharbeia Governorate, Egypt.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 430
nurses at Tanta University Hospitals using a semistructured, self-administered
questionnaire to collect the data concerning the exposure and characteristics
of harassment situations. A representative sample of the nurses was taken
randomly from the emergency, medical and surgical departments.
Overall, 70.2% of the studied nurses were ever exposed to
sexual harassment at the workplace; 43.7% of the harassed nurses were working
in both day and night shifts. Staring in a suggestive manner emerged as the
most common form of harassment, followed by hearing sexual words and comments
or jokes (70.9, 58.6 and 57.3%, respectively). The relatives of the patients
were the most common perpetrators, followed by the hospital staff other than
the doctors (61.9, 45.4%, respectively). During the harassment situation,
astonishment and shock were the most frequent responses in 65.2% of the
harassed nurses, while after its occurrence 38.4% ignored the situation. About
95% of the harassed nurses were left with psychological effects, mostly in the
form of disappointment and depression (76.5 and 67.9%, respectively).
The prevalence of sexual harassment among nurses at the
workplace was high with relation to certain occupational factors, and it led to
marked psychological effects on the victims. Hence, protective legislations and
measures should be taken by the hospital management for prevention of this
problem in the future.
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By:
- 1Public Health and Community Medicine Department bIndustrial Medicine and Occupational Health, Public Health and Community Medicine Department, Tanta Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.
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