Objectives: Our aim is to attach importance upon the violence against the healthcare professionals and to suggest some solutions for the violence in healthcare services.
Method: The statistical data from the department of patient and healthcare professional safety in 2012 were examined and the application forms dated for the same year in Sivas Numune Hospital Department of Healthcare Professional Safety were checked. Of those exposed to violence within the last one year, the information forms were delivered to 540 people, who accepted to participate the study.
Results: 35 applications were sent to the healthcare professional department of Sivas Numune Hospital in 2012. The highest number of applications was done by the emergency room (ER) non-physician staff members for oral violence. Number of applications to the state hospitals of Ministry of Health in 2012 was 3879. Most of these applications were done by ER physicians for oral violence. The mean age of the study participants was 34,68±7,54. The highest percentages were of 25-34 years old females, married ones, undergraduate degree holders, nurses/midwives, workers of the department and those working since 6-10 years to date. Within the last 1 year, 50.7% of the healthcare professionals were exposed to violence, of these 62.4% were the victim of oral violence, and 27.4% were exposed to violence while working in ER and most of them called the security staff. Such violence was mostly performed by the relatives of the patients. In terms of existence of violence, it was detected that there were significant differences among the gender, educational background, profession, department and years of working, while there were no differences between age groups and marital status. Most of the participants were aware of the existence of security staff in our hospital but only 21.5% of the healthcare professionals stated that the security measures were adequate.
Conclusions: Violence against the healthcare professionals in health sector has been gradually increasing. We can describe the precautions to be taken against the violence as training of staff, applying the deterrent legal arrangements, developing the security measures, public education, supporting the healthcare professionals by institutional managements, , and advertising the public by mass media tools.