Assessment of Prevalence and Attitude of Sexual Harassment among SPHMMC Female Interns,2017 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other visual or verbal or physical conducts of a sexual nature whereby such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly as a t erm or condition of an individual’s employment or academic status as will be explained further in this paper.The aim of this research is to find out the prevalence and attitude about sexual harassment by female interns of SPHMMC, Addis Ababa Ethiopia. An institutional based cross sectional study design was implemented on female interns of SPHMMC 2016/2017 batch. Data was collected with self administered questionnaire. A convenient sampling method was used to select the respondents. Results were measured based on the manual for Sexual Experiences Questionnaire and Sexual Harassment Attitude Scale . Results: Prevalence of perceived Sexual harassment was 21(70%), with verbal harassment of 30(100%), physical harassment and Non verbal harassment both 27(90%). Gender harassment and unwanted sexual attention was recorded at 30(100%), and sexual coercion was 19(63.3%). Perpetrators of harassment were found to be Residnets90.4%, Colleagues 52.3%, interns 23.8%, and seniors 9.5%. Department implicated as the worst regarding sexual harassment was Gynecology and Obstetrics at 42.8% followed by internal medicine 23.8%, surgery 14.2%, pediatrics 9.5%, and surgery 4.7%.Sexual harassment was reported 5(23.8%) of which action was taken in 4(80%). Attitude regarding sexual harassment was 25(83.3%) having negative attitude. Based on the current findings, we can conclude that there a significant and rampant rate of sexual harassments on interns, which in turn leads to hostile and unfavorable work environment. Therefore there is a need to do f urther research on this area as well as to develop strict and specific ethical guidelines and awareness about the problem from human resources and other relevant administrative bodies.