Security and Violence Perception of Medical Interns during Social Service Practice in Mexico

The increase of insecurity levels in Mexico, as well as the fact that violence is a frequent experience among health personnel, motivated this study whose purpose was to evaluate the perception of security and violence that social service medical interns (SSMI) had on the institutions and localities where they carried out their social work and make visible the main types of violence to which they were exposed. This was a cross-sectional study, based on a perception survey self-administered to 157 SSMI from Zacatecas, in Mexico. A high proportion of the participants (75.8%) stated that they were victims of violence, describing 134 incidents; however, only 33.6% of SSMI made an official report. The reported incidents were related to organized crime (31.9%), verbal violence (20.6%), violence by the authorities (14.7%) and sexual harassment (11.8%). One hundred percent of the victims of sexual harassment were women (p = 0.039). According to the above, it is a priority to generate strategies to prevent and reduce the risk of exposure to the violence generated in the medical units and communities where SSMI carry out their activities as medical graduates, as well as, to efficiently process formal violence reports to promote a safe environment that favors the fulfillment of the practice of SSMIs in Mexico.