Examination of occupational therapists' encounters with violence

We aimed to investigate whether occupational therapists are exposed to violence in their professional lives and to identify the types of violence they encounter.

This descriptive online-survey study was conducted with 158 female and 43 male occupational therapists, with a mean age of 23.92 years. The survey comprised three sections. The first section included questions pertaining to personal information and workplace details. The second section addressed experiences of violence under the following headings: overall violence, physical violence, psychological violence, and sexual violence. The third section comprised two questions regarding witnessing violence and exposure to the code white protocol.

A total of 49% (n = 100) of the occupational therapists surveyed reported experiencing violence at least once in their professional lives. Of these, 63 individuals faced psychological violence exclusively, 14 experienced only physical violence, 20 encountered both physical and psychological violence, and 3 reported a combination of psychological and sexual violence.

Nearly half of the occupational therapists experienced violence, with psychological violence being the most common type. Addressing violence at the worker, patient, and system levels may help reduce its prevalence.