The Relationship Between Aggressive Behavior And Empathic Tendency Levels Of Health Workers

Abstract

Today, as level of education of individuals increases, demand for higher quality health services pushes the health sector to compete more. As a result of health problems, anxiety and worries of patients and their relatives who are beginning to accept their situation, might be replaced by anger. Health personnel’s way of dealing with this anger determines the quality of service provided. Empathic tendency and aggression levels of the personnel gain importance at this point. Empathic communication without aggressive behavior against anger of patient and his/her relatives requires low level of aggression and high empathic tendency. Health workers with high levels of aggressive behavior and low empathic tendencies, are likely to provoke patients and their relatives who are not angry, cause violence in health and reduce satisfaction with the service provided. Research was conducted to determine levels of empathic tendency and aggressiveness of healthcare personnel and their relations with each other. Research's sample group contains 428 healthcare workers working in Konya Numune Hospital, Health Sciences University Konya Education and Research Hospital and Beyhekim State Hospital. While collecting data, personal information form prepared by researcher, Empathic Tendency Scale developed by Dökmen and aggression scale developed by Buss and Perry were used. In the analyzes, results were evaluated at 95% confidence interval, 0,05 (p <0,05) significance level. In this study, Cronbach Alpha coefficient of Empathic Tendency Scale was found as 0,84 and Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of the Aggression Scale was found as 0,92. Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of Aggression Scale sub-dimensions was 0,84 for physical aggression, 0,62 for verbal aggression, 0,77 for hostility and 0,79 for anger. According to research findings, total point average of empathic tendency of health personnel was determined as 66,71 and total point average of aggression was determined as 2,69. It was determined that empathic tendency was related to gender, age, education level and aggression level was related to gender, marital status, duty year. Negative significant relation between empathic tendency and level of aggression was determined. According to this result, as levels of empathic tendency of health personnel increase, aggression levels decrease.