Introduction: The incidents of violence against doctors, leading to grievous injury and even death, seem to be on an increasing trend in recent years. There is a paucity of studies on workplace violence against doctors and its effect, in India. The present study was conducted to assess workplace violence faced by doctors, its effect on the psycho-social wellbeing of the treating doctor and, subsequently, on patient management.
Methods: The present nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2019 -April 2020. The sample size was calculated assuming the prevalence of workplace violence as 50%, with 20% non-response. Doctors, working in private and/or public set-up, with ≥1 year clinical experience, were included. A pre-tested study tool- Google form-was sent to study participants via social media platforms. The Microsoft Excel spreadsheet was downloaded from google drive and data was analysed using STATA-12 statistical software.
Results: A total of 617 responses were received from doctors all over India; out of which 477 (77.3%) doctors had ever faced workplace violence. "Actual or perceived non-improvement or deterioration of patient's condition" (40.0%), followed by "perception of wrong treatment given" (37.3%) were the main causes of workplace violence; and the family members/relatives were the major perpetrators (82.2%). More than half of the participants reported "loss of self-esteem", "feeling of shame" and "stress/depression/anxiety/ideas of persecution" after the incident. Management by surgical interventions (p-value<0.001) and handling of emergency/complicated cases (p-value<0.001) decreased significantly with an increase in severity of workplace violence; while the suggestion of investigations and referrals increased (p-value<0.001).
Conclusions: Workplace violence has a significant effect on the psycho-social well-being of doctors, as well as on patient management; which may escalate discontent and distrust among the general public, thereby increasing incidents of workplace violence-in a self-propagating vicious cycle.