ABSTRACT

Conclusion:

As with much preventive medicine, violence must also be prevented before it happens.

Results:

Five hundred eighty-seven (67.8%) of the 865 participants reported being subjected to occupational violence at least once; of these, 86.4% described the most recent violence as verbal, 74.4% reported violence from patient relatives and 38.9% from patients, 81.4% reported that the aggressors were male and 43.9% that they were exposed to violence for refusing illegitimate demands.

Of the physicians, 72.3% stated that physicians are subjected to violence because doctors are generally depicted as responsible for flaws in the health system, and 79.6% believed that legally enforced sanctions on the subject of violence against physicians need to be introduced in Turkey to prevent the problem.

Materials and methods:

The data from this descriptive research was collected, following ethical committee approval and institutional permissions, from questionnaire forms received from 865 physicians serving in the province of Samsun between 01.06.2013 and 30.11.2013 and volunteering to participate, and through face-to-face interviews. The data obtained were analyzed on SPSS software (Version 13.0), using descriptive statistics and the chi-square test.

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to identify the types, frequency and causes of occupational violence experienced by physicians working in the province of Samsun, and their opinions regarding prevention strategies.