Correspondence

Violence against Chinese health-care workers

To date, little is known about how gender peers affect students’ educational and occupational expectations. This study investigates the gender peer effects on students’ educational and occupational expectations, using the 2014 China Education Panel Survey. To address students’ self-selection into classes, we choose a sample of schools that randomly assign students to classes. We find that exposure to more female peers increases students’ probability of expecting to attend university and reduces their probability of expecting to complete only middle school. Besides, exposure to more female peers increases boys’ and girls’ probabilities of expecting to pursue a career as a manager, and reduces their probabilities of expecting to become a teacher, doctor, or lawyer. Moreover, exposure to more female peers has significant positive effects on both girls’ and boys’ probability of expecting to pursue prevalently male occupations. In addition, we discuss the mechanisms and check the robustness of the results. This study helps to understand the gender peer effects in education and the variations in individuals’ educational and occupational choices.

A national cross-sectional study was performed to investigate the severity of burnout and its associated factors among doctors and nurses in ICUs in mainland China.

This is a cross-sectional survey. A total of 2411 ICU doctors and nurses in mainland China were included. Demographic and psychological data were collected via questionnaire. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to evaluate burnout. Differences among regions and departments were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to determine the associated factors.

Among the participants, 1122 (46.54%) were doctors, and 1289 (53.46%) were nurses. A total of 800 doctors (71.3% of all doctors) and 881 nurses (68.3% of all nurses) were deemed to be burnout. People working in the general ICU were most likely to be burnout. Factors associated with burnout included having low frequency of exercise, having comorbidities, working in a high-quality hospital, having more years of work experience, having more night shifts and having fewer paid vacation days.

The burnout rate of ICU doctors and nurses in mainland China is 69.7%. Our study provides baseline data about burnout among Chinese medical staff predating COVID-19, which could help in the analysis and interpretation of burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Workplace violence (WPV) is common in mental health services in China, but its multi-center prevalence measured using standardized rating scales has rarely been reported. This study aimed to explore the prevalence of verbal and physical violence against nurses working in psychiatric hospitals and examine its independent socio-demographic correlates in China.

This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 11 major psychiatric hospitals in China using a 9-item self-reported workplace violence scale.

A total of 1906 psychiatric nurses were recruited to participate in this study. The one-year prevalence of verbal and/or physical workplace violence (WPV) was 84.2% (95% CI: 82.4–85.8). The prevalence rates of verbal abuse, threats and physical violence were 79.3% (95% CI: 77.4–81.1), 70.9% (95% CI: 68.8–73.0) and 57.9% (95% CI: 55.7–60.2), respectively. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that working in department of psychiatry (OR = 3.42, P < 0.001), having moderate (OR = 2.05, P = 0.009), severe (OR = 2.04, P = 0.015) or extremely severe (OR = 3.21, P < 0.001) anxiety level of WPV and working in hospitals with a WPV reporting system (OR = 1.88, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with WPV.

WPV against nurses is a serious occupational and public health concern in Chinese psychiatric hospitals. Appropriate preventive measures should be undertaken to reduce the risk of WPV in healthcare settings.