Incidence and prevalence of violence toward health care workers in emergency departments: a multicenter cross-sectional survey.

Background: Workplace violence and abuse in the emergency department (ED) has increasingly become a serious and alarming phenomenon worldwide where health care professionals are more prone to violence compared with other specialties.

Aims: We aimed to estimate prevalence, and types of work place violence made against health care workers (HCW) in emergency departments of Arabian Gulf area.

Methods: We performed a descriptive cross-sectional study at several emergency departments in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates wherein a previously validated questionnaire was distributed among health care workers.