Caregiving burden in family caregivers of patients with schizophrenia: A qualitative study.

INTRODUCTION: After the psychiatric revolution and implementation of deinstitutionalization policies, caring for people with a mental health condition shifted from psychiatric hospitals to their families. In this way, family caregivers were forced to take full responsibility for taking care of the patients that lead to the occurrence of challenges for them. Only a few studies have investigated the caregiving challenges of family caregivers in patients with schizophrenia. AIM: This study aimed to gain a better understanding of caregiving burden in family caregivers of patients with schizophrenia and its related factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This qualitative study was performed based on 12 family caregivers of schizophrenia patients visiting a psychiatric hospital in Tehran in 2018. Sampling was carried out based on the purposive sampling method and was continued until data saturation. All interviews were recorded, transcript, and imported into the MAXQDA software. Then, qualitative content analysis was conducted based on Graneheim and Lundman's five-step method. RESULTS: One theme, two main categories, and five subcategories were identified from the continuous analysis and data comparison. The "Perceived objective burden" as theme included two main categories: "Heavy involvement of caregivers" and "Challenges of the healthcare system". CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that the family caregivers of the patients with schizophrenia encounter many problems related to multiple responsibilities in the caring process and challenges in the provision of mental health-care services. This finding could improve psychiatric and mental health nurses' knowledge and awareness about caregiving challenges in family caregiver of patients with schizophrenia and related factors.

Defining the concept of family caregiver burden in patients with schizophrenia: a systematic review protocol.

BACKGROUND: Since the deinstitutionalization policy, in psychiatric hospitals, the care of patients with schizophrenia was left to their families which has been imposing a heavy burden on them. Family caregiver burden could have consequences for caregivers, patients, and the society. There is very little consensus on the definition and dimensions of the caregiver burden, which leads to a lack of consistency in the results of research. Thus, the present study was aimed to redefine the family caregiver burden of patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: The databases PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE (Via Ovid), ProQuest, SCI, Magiran, SID, and IranDoc will be searched from 1940 to 2018 using subject headings and appropriate terms in both Farsi and English languages. Also, gray literature and the reference list of included articles will be used to offer an appropriate definition of the family caregiver burden in patients with schizophrenia. Two independent reviewers will participate in study selection, data collection, and quality assessment steps. The result will be presented in tabular form, and meta-synthesis will be performed. DISCUSSION: The result of this systematic review will help present the comprehensive definition of the family caregiver burden in patients with schizophrenia according to its evolutionary trend. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42018099372.

Physical violence against health care workers: A nationwide study from Iran.

BACKGROUND: Workplace violence is a serious and problematic phenomenon in health care settings. Research shows that health care workers are at the highest risk of such violence. The aim of this study was to address the frequency of physical violence against Iranian health personnel, their response to such violence, as well as the contributing factors to physical violence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2011, in which 6500 out of 57,000 health personnel working in some teaching hospitals were selected using multi-stage random sampling. Data were collected using the questionnaire of "Workplace Violence in the Health Sector" developed by the International Labor Organization, the International Council of Nurses, the World Health Organization, and the Public Services International. RESULTS: The findings revealed that 23.5% of the participants were exposed to physical violence in the 12 months prior to the study. Nurses were the main victims of physical violence (78%) and patients' families were the main perpetrators of violence (56%). The most common reaction of victims to physical violence was asking the aggressor to stop violence (45%). Lack of people's knowledge of employees' tasks was the most common contributing factor to physical violence (49.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results, legislating appropriate laws in order to prevent and control violence in the workplace is necessary. Moreover, developing educational programs to manage the incidence of physical violence should be on health centers' agenda.

The Frequency, Contributing and Preventive Factors of Harassment towards Health Professionals in Iran.

BACKGROUND: There are high levels of sexual harassment in health care systems. Also, workplace violence occurs against ethnic and racial minorities. This study aimed to identify the frequency of and the factors contributing to and preventing sexual and racial harassment in the workplace towards health professionals in Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 6500 out of 57000 health workers who were selected by multistage random sampling from some teaching hospitals in Iran. Data were collected using the questionnaire of "workplace violence in the health sector" developed by the International Labor Organization, International Council of Nurses, World Health Organization, and Public Services International. RESULTS: According to the findings, the frequencies of sexual harassment and racial harassment were, respectively, 4.7% and 12% for the 12 months prior to the study (2011). Among healthcare workers, nurses reported the highest rate of violence. The most important contributing factors in sexual and racial harassment were lack of security facilities (45.8%) and people's ignorance of employees' tasks (55.7%). The presence of security force, safety measures in the wards, and guards were noted as the most important preventive factor to harassment. CONCLUSION: Based on the results, the frequency of sexual and racial harassment is low, which can be attributed to underreporting due to cultural sensitivity or fear. So, identifying the reasons for refusal to report harassment, developing a clear mechanism for reporting and providing the necessary trainings to health workers are essential in order to deal with harassment.

Psychological violence in the health care settings in iran: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Psychological violence is the most common form of workplace violence that can affect professional performance and job satisfaction of health care workers. Although several studies have been conducted in Iran, but there is no consensus regarding current status of such violence. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychological violence among healthcare workers employed at teaching hospitals in Iran. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 5874 health professionals were selected using multistage random sampling. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire developed by the International Labor Organization, International Council of Nurses, World Health Organization, and Public Services International. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: It was found that 74.7% of the participants were subjected to psychological violence during the past 12 months. Totally, 64.5% of psychological violence was committed by patients' families, but 50.9% of participants had not reported the violence, and 69.9% of them believed that reporting was useless. CONCLUSIONS: The results are indicative of high prevalence of psychological violence against healthcare workers. Considering non-reporting of violence in more than half of participants, use of an appropriate reporting system and providing training programs for health professionals in order to prevent and manage workplace violence are essential.

Prevalence of workplace violence in psychiatric wards, Tehran, Iran.

Workplace violence is still a problem that nurses may be exposed to in clinical wards. A psychiatric ward is among the most probable one confronting this violence. This study determined the workplace violence in psychiatric wards in Tehran, Iran. Nurses working in Razi Psychiatric Center, Tehran, Iran were enrolled using the International Workplace Violence questionnaire. Among 385 nurses of this ward, 200 subjects completed the questionnaire using a simple random sampling method with a response rate of 91.5%. The prevalence of workplace violence was 71% including mental (93.4%) and physical violence (71.6%). Verbal and sexual violence occurred in 19.1 and 5.5% of subjects, respectively. The 62.3% of the nurses did not report violence because they considered it useless (55.3%) or did not believe to be important (42.1%). The 61.2% believed to the necessity of training courses while 72.7% had completed these courses and 59.6% believed to a reporting system. The need to security guard (56.8%), taking security actions in wards (67.8%) and training of staffs (68.9%) were the most important preventive measures reported to be effective for workplace violence. It seems that training courses, establishing rules to prevent workplace violence, reporting systems, compensating losses from violence, increasing the security at workplace, increasing the number of nurses and providing especial guiding protocols against any workplace violence would promote the wards to control the workplace violence against nurses.