Impact of External Workplace Violence on the Occupational Well-being of Healthcare Workers

November 3, 2026 updated by: Consorci Sanitari de l'Alt Penedès i Garraf

Impact of External Occupational Violence on Healthcare Professionals and Organizations: a Multicenter Cross-sectional Study

The goal of this observational study is to learn whether external workplace violence (violence by patients, relatives, or companions) is associated with poorer occupational well-being in healthcare workers aged 18 years or older who have regular face-to-face contact with patients or their families. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Do healthcare workers who have experienced external workplace violence in the past 12 months report more negative effects of work (somatization, exhaustion, and alienation) than those who have not?
  • How common is external workplace violence, what types occur (physical, verbal, symbolic, digital, or economic), and how intense are they?
  • Is external workplace violence associated with working conditions and organizational practices? Researchers will compare healthcare workers who have experienced external workplace violence with those who have not to see if their occupational well-being scores differ.

Participants will complete a single anonymous online survey about their experience of workplace violence, their occupational well-being, their working conditions, and the measures they consider most effective to reduce violence.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Detailed Description

This multicenter cross-sectional study will be conducted in seven healthcare organizations with different profiles. Participants will be randomly selected from the staff census of each center, stratified by area or department, and invited to complete an anonymous online survey hosted on the REDCap platform of the sponsor. The survey includes the collateral effects dimension of the General Occupational Well-being Questionnaire (cBLG; somatization, exhaustion, and alienation scales; total score 13-91), 22 items of the Working Conditions Questionnaire (cCT; score 0-220), 6 ad hoc items on organizational practices (score 0-60), self-reported workplace violence in the past 12 months by type and intensity, and sociodemographic and occupational variables.

The primary analysis will compare mean collateral effects scores between workers with and without external workplace violence using Student's t test, followed by multivariable analyses adjusted for sex, age group, professional category, care setting, work shift, type of contract, and seniority. Subgroup analyses by sex, professional category, and center, and a dose-response analysis by violence intensity, are planned.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

442

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Spain
    • Barcelona
      • Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
        • Recruiting
        • Hospital Clinic
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Marta Hage
      • Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
        • Recruiting
        • Sistema d'Emergències Mèdiques de Catalunya
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Mireia Campos
      • Calella, Barcelona, Spain
        • Recruiting
        • Corporació de Salut del Maresme i la Selva
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Sergio Bujaldón
      • Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain
        • Recruiting
        • Consorci Sanitari de Terrassa
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Clara Romero
      • Vilafranca del Penedès, Barcelona, Spain
        • Recruiting
        • Consorci Sanitari de l'Alt Penedès i Garraf
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Genís Cervantes
      • Vilafranca del Penedès, Barcelona, Spain
        • Recruiting
        • Institut Català de Salut Àrea Penedès
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Alberto Domínguez
    • Girona
      • Girona, Girona, Spain
        • Not yet recruiting
        • Institut d'Assistència Sanitària
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • María Cruz Rodríguez

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Probability Sample

Study Population

Active healthcare workers of the participating centers whose work involves direct and regular contact with external users (patients, relatives, or companions), including clinical, technical, auxiliary, and administrative or front-desk staff

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Aged 18 years or older
  • At least 12 months of employment at the study center
  • Active healthcare worker whose work involves direct and regular contact with external users (patients, relatives, or companions), defined as at least one face-to-face interaction on 2 or more days in a typical working week

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Refusal to participate in the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Observational Models: OTHER
  • Time Perspectives: CROSS_SECTIONAL

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Healthcare workers with external workplace violence

Workers who self-report at least one episode of external workplace violence (physical, verbal, symbolic, digital, or economic) in the past 12 months
Healthcare workers without external workplace violence

Workers who report no episodes of external workplace violence in the past 12 months

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Collateral effects of work (occupational well-being)
Time Frame: At survey completion (single time point)

Sum of the somatization (5 items), exhaustion (4 items), and alienation (4 items) scales of the collateral effects dimension of the General Occupational Well-being Questionnaire (cBLG; Blanch et al.). Total score range: 13 to 91; higher scores indicate greater deterioration of occupational well-being.
At survey completion (single time point)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Consorci Sanitari de l'Alt Penedès i Garraf

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 24, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 3, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 3, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

November 9, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 9, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 3, 2026

Last Verified

November 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CSAPG-81

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

IPD (without personal identification data) could be shared by requirement from other researchers after the end of the study, and only for research purposes and previous approval of promotor center of the study (CSAPG). Anyway, Spanish and European Union legal policy about data protection will strictly be followed (IPD will not be transferred outside European Union).

IPD Sharing Time Frame

After publication of main results of the study

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

IPD will be shared only for scientific research purposes and following the Spanish and European Union normative law about data protection. The requirements will be directed to the IP of the study. The IP will evaluate the request to verify and evaluate the data that is requested and the purposes for which it is requested. Next, the IP will transfer the request to the promotor center the study for the final decision.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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