Violence Against Healthcare Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic In India

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The violence against healthcare workers is one of the world's serious public health and patient care challenges. This is often exacerbated during emergencies, and the same has been observed during COVID-19. Method(s) The study reported an analysis of media reports during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic from India. We searched and analysed violent incidents against healthcare workers reported in English & Hindi online media. Our media analysis also reported perpetrators and triggers to mitigate violence against healthcare workers. Finding(s) We studied 51 incidents of violence, during March 2020-August 2021, as per our inclusion criteria. The majority of this reported violence occurred from the government hospitals (45.1%), followed by the community (29.4%), private hospitals (19.6%), quarantine facilities (4.0%), and burial grounds (1.9%). Doctors were targeted in the majority (82.3%), followed by other hospital staff (security and support) (33.3%), nurses (9.8%), ANMs (3.9%), and ASHA (2.0%). The majority of reported incidents were related to physical violence (58.9%), followed by verbal and physical combined (23.5%), sexual harassment (9.8%), and verbal (7.8%). The preparators of violence were family members (53.0%), community (31.4%), police officials (7.8%), and patients (7.8%). Conclusion(s) The actions required to mitigate the violence against healthcare workers require a multipronged approach with the introduction of strict policy measures and their implementation. The mandatory training of healthcare workers in soft and communication skills, protection, and coping mechanisms to prevent and de-escalate such incidents.Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.