Sexual harassment against nursing staff in Tanta University Hospitals, Egypt

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.