A confidential survey among medical practitioners on workplace violence in Tamilnadu

Abstract

Hospital is a place where mixed emotions, from rejoices of begetting a baby to lamenting the loss of our loved ones, co-exist. Recently a third emotion in the form of violence against Medical Practitioners is creeping in. It is high time to unveil the extent of these violent incidents. Hence we have attempted to bring out the reality of this burning issue. This cross-sectional study included responses from 540 victims of violence among 800 medical practitioners. The participants were randomly chosen across Tamilnadu and were given a pretested questionnaire through Google forms after obtaining consent and disclosing confidentiality. Data were analyzed using Microsoft SPSS software Version 24.0. In this study, 68% of medical practitioners had experienced some form of workplace violence. Most of them were working in private establishments. Verbal threats were the most common form of violence. Emergency and critical care areas were the most vulnerable locations, relatives of the patients committed most of the violent attacks. Only 6% of the 540 victims had sought legal intervention. Violent outbreaks against medical practitioners are still rampant in our society despite the government's preventive measures. We can curtail such occurrences by implementing stringent Laws and bringing a change of attitude in a soft-skilled medical man to report such incidents and seek timely legal intervention.