The Research On The Current Status Of Workplace Sexual Harassment Against Nursing Students In Changchun

Objectives:To identify the current status of workplace sexual harassment against nursing stu-dents during their clinical practice in Changchun. To analyze the factors associatedwith the incidence of sexual harassment and to find the reasons. To explore a feasiblepolicy and procedure which could protect nursing students and other nursing staffsfrom workplace sexual harassment.Methods:This descriptive study was conducted between November2012and January2013in four hospitals in Changchun. Data was collected from400nursing students duringtheir clinical practice. The instrument was a self-designed questionnaire, consisting ofthe general information of participants, the experiences of sexual harassment. The sta-tistical package SPSS17.0was used for the data analysis. The general information ofparticipants and the experiences of sexual harassment were described by descriptivestatistics. Statistical difference was determined by chi-square test.Results:1. Of the400nursing students involved in the analysis,28.75%(n=115) answeredthat they had encountered sexual harassment during their clinical practice.34.78%ofmale nursing students and28.38%of female nursing students reported they had beensexually harassed.25.50%(n=102) of participants reported that they had seen or heardof other students experiencing sexual harassment.42.75%(n=171) of participantsintentionally protected themselves from sexual harassment.2. Of the115nursing students being sexually harassed,43.48%(n=50) reportedthat they experienced verbal tease;69.57%(n=80) reported they encountered morethan one type sexual harassment;73.04%(n=84) reported they were sexually harassedmore than once; the majority of harassers were male patients and patients’ relativesunder40years old; Sexual harassment made46.96%(n=54) and43.48%(n=50) nursing students feel disgusting and embarassment respectively.3. There is statistically significant difference on experiencing sexual harassmentamong participants from different homeplace (χ~2=8.319, P=0.016).4. Mostly being sexually harassed did not much affect the physiology, psycholo-gy, nursing career and social relations of nursing students. However, there are someadverse effects on nursing students we can’t ignore. For example of the115nursingstudents who experienced sexual harassment,23.48%(n=27) answered that they feltinattention physically,26.09%(n=30) answered that they felt insecurity psychologi-cally,29.57%(n=34) and26.96%(n=31) manifested as hating the environment ofhospital and nursing work about nursing career respectively,15.65%(n=18) distrustthe opposite sex in social relationships.5.49.75%(n=199) of nursing students believed that they had the risk of beingsexually harassed. Without considering other factors,57.00%(n=228) of them lostconfidence in devoting themselves to nursing profession.Conclusions:1. Sexual harassment is a widespread problem among the nursing students duringinternship, claiming both women and men as its victims.2. The most common type of sexual harassment is verbal sexual harassment andthe main harassers are patients and their relatives.3. All the nursing students have the risk of being sexually harassed. The causesof sexual harassment are particularity of nursing work and special status of nursingstudents.4. The experience of sexual harassment has a lot of harmful effects on nursingstudents who tend to react passively and moderately. We need effective polices andsocial supports to combat the situation.5. To handle the issue of workplace sexual harassment effectively, it is necessaryfor us to learn from the experiences of foreign countries and some domestic supportstrategies for nursing students.