TY - JOUR
T1 - Violence Against Psychiatric Trainees
T2 - Findings of a European Survey
AU - Pereira-Sanchez, Victor
AU - Gürcan, Ahmet
AU - Gnanavel, Sundar
AU - Vieira, Joana
AU - Asztalos, Marton
AU - Rai, Yugesh
AU - Erzin, Gamze
AU - Fontaine, Audrey
AU - Pinto da Costa, Mariana
AU - Szczegielniak, Anna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Academic Psychiatry.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - Objectives: Violence by patients against health care professionals has been widely described. Although psychiatric trainees are particularly exposed, little is known about the extent, context, and impact of violence toward them in Europe. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was distributed between June 2018 and December 2019 among European psychiatric trainees through professional networks, using a snowball approach. The questionnaire asked about experiences of verbal abuse and physical and sexual assaults, as well as their context and impact. Descriptive analyses of the obtained data were conducted. Results: The survey was completed by 827 trainees from 39 countries (68.4% females). Most (83.6%) reported having been abused/assaulted at least once (of these, 92% verbally, 44.1% physically, and 9.3% sexually). Emergency rooms and inpatient units were the most frequent settings. Psychological impact of these events was commonly reported. Most respondents did not report abuses and assaults to their supervisors. They also described a lack of training for staff and aggression management plans at their institutions or of being unaware of their existence. Conclusions: Violence from patients is reported by many psychiatric trainees across countries in Europe, with very frequent verbal abuse and worrisome figures of physical and sexual assaults. Particularly concerning are the low proportion of trainees reporting to authorities, the lack of staff training and management protocols, and trainees’ lack of awareness about those resources. Despite the study limitation of a small response rate, these results support a call for urgent efforts to address this problem in Europe, and possibly beyond.
AB - Objectives: Violence by patients against health care professionals has been widely described. Although psychiatric trainees are particularly exposed, little is known about the extent, context, and impact of violence toward them in Europe. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was distributed between June 2018 and December 2019 among European psychiatric trainees through professional networks, using a snowball approach. The questionnaire asked about experiences of verbal abuse and physical and sexual assaults, as well as their context and impact. Descriptive analyses of the obtained data were conducted. Results: The survey was completed by 827 trainees from 39 countries (68.4% females). Most (83.6%) reported having been abused/assaulted at least once (of these, 92% verbally, 44.1% physically, and 9.3% sexually). Emergency rooms and inpatient units were the most frequent settings. Psychological impact of these events was commonly reported. Most respondents did not report abuses and assaults to their supervisors. They also described a lack of training for staff and aggression management plans at their institutions or of being unaware of their existence. Conclusions: Violence from patients is reported by many psychiatric trainees across countries in Europe, with very frequent verbal abuse and worrisome figures of physical and sexual assaults. Particularly concerning are the low proportion of trainees reporting to authorities, the lack of staff training and management protocols, and trainees’ lack of awareness about those resources. Despite the study limitation of a small response rate, these results support a call for urgent efforts to address this problem in Europe, and possibly beyond.
KW - Europe
KW - European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees
KW - Medical education
KW - Psychiatric trainees
KW - Workplace violence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116356547&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s40596-021-01539-3
DO - 10.1007/s40596-021-01539-3
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85116356547
SN - 1042-9670
VL - 46
SP - 233
EP - 237
JO - Academic Psychiatry
JF - Academic Psychiatry
IS - 2
ER -