Attitude of Medical Students Toward Rising Violence Against Doctors

In the past three years, there has been an increase in incidents of violence against healthcare workers in Kerala. The aim of the study is to explore the attitude of medical students toward violence against doctors.

This was a cross-sectional study undertaken at three of the four medical colleges in Ernakulam district in India as a part of our convenience sampling, which included around 1,500 students. Students from first-year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) to students doing internships were included in the study. The authors prepared a semi-structured questionnaire assessing the attitude of medical students toward rising violence against doctors, which was circulated among the students.

A total of 347 medical students participated in the study. Of these, 338 (97.4%) expressed concern about such incidents. 248 (71.5%) reported that emergency medicine doctors were more prone to such violence than any other specialties, and 221 (63.7%) of the participants preferred to go abroad for higher studies and continue their careers there. Two hundred ten (60.5%) of the students were not aware of any legal provision to safeguard doctors from workplace violence. Primary contributing factors to violence were "unrealistic expectations of the family from the doctors," "poor communication skills of the doctor," "inadequate time spent by the doctor in explaining the prognosis," and "not taking proper action against the violators."

In order to prevent such incidents, changes should be made at various levels. Adequate training should be done to improve soft skills, including the communication skills of doctors. Adequately trained security staff should be provided at the hospital, especially the casualty. The government should make a stringent central law that protects hospitals and healthcare staff.