Abstract

Sexual Harassment (SH) among nurses is a major issue of workplace safety and seriously affects patient care. The aim of this descriptive cross-sectional study was used to identify perception and experience of SH among nurses. Altogether 223 nurses of a tertiary level hospital of Kathmandu was selected using purposive sampling technique. Data were collected through structured, self administered questionnaire, analysis was done using descriptive statistics and ethical approval was taken from Institutional Review Board, Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu.

More than two third (66.4%) of the respondents’ age were 20–29 years, 57% were married, 5 1.1% had bachelor level education, 82.9% were staff nurse, 85.2% had done all shift duty and 87.9% had not received training on SH. Majority (61.9%) of the respondents were strongly agreed that SH is any conduct based on sex and gender which is unwelcomed and unwanted; 63.7% were strongly agreed on stress, tension, humiliation, anxiety, depression, anger, powerlessness, and fatigue as consequences of SH; and 74.4% were strongly agreed on laws against SH should be established to prevent SH. Likewise, 49.3% strongly agreed on SH among nurses is very serious issue; and 59.6% were strongly agreed on females were more likely to be victimized. Prevalence of SH in study population was18.5%; 53.8% were harassed by doctors and visitors; 28.2% reported the event and 89.7% suggested that hospital policy against SH is necessary. Respondents with night shift duty (100.0%), PCL/B. Sc level of education (20.0%), unmarried (21.8%), staff nurse (201.7%), slim body (21.3%), fierce nature (33.3%) and beautiful looks (29.8%) were more victimized. In conclusion, most of the respondents correctly perceived SH; and proper law and reporting mechanism should be developed to combat SH among nurses.