Bullying perceptions among post-graduate dental students of Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Introduction: of bullying are common in field of medicine. However, the extent of this problem remains unknown. Bullying among students and professionals has been studied in developed countries, but has received limited, practically, no attention in India. This study was thus planned with an aim to know the prevalence and the perceptions of bullying by the post-graduate dental college students of Andhra Pradesh, India. Objectives: This study aimed to find out bullying practices experienced by the students and the sources of bullying. To assess the extent of reporting of bullying faced at the workplace.Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among post-graduate students of five randomly selected dental colleges of A.P. The students, belonging to 2, 3 years of the course were approached to fill in a self-administered questionnaire to record details regarding bullying practices, sources of bullying and the extent of reporting to the respective authorities. Results: A total of 156 post-graduates participated in the study. Bullying was experienced by 79% of them during their training. Pressure to overwork (69.9%) and threat to professional status (60.3%) were the most prevalent forms of bullying. Main source for bullying was the department staff (89.1%) followed by administrative staff (16%). Only 34% of prevalent bullying was being reported to authorities and no anti bullying policies and measures are in vogue at present in the dental colleges.Conclusions: The prevalence of bullying is high and it acts as a chief stress or among the post-graduate dental students.