P-456 Causes and Impacts of Violence in the Healthcare Environment

Introduction Violence is an emerging social phenomenon which threatens our society, particularly health care personnel. The aim of the study was to identify the characteristics of violence perpetrated on trainee physicians and its physical and psychological impacts. Methods it was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Data were collected from a self-administered questionnaire. It was conducted in ten university hospitals in Tunis. Results of 257 surveys distributed, 207 (80,5%) were returned. It was a population with a mean age of 26.8 ± 2.35 years, sex ratio was 0.46 and 59.4% of them were internal physicians. During the previous twelve months, 98.1% of the respondents’ trainee physicians were victims and/or witnesses of violence. Indeed, 62.5% of the participants had been subjected to or had witnessed verbal abuse, 24.1% of them had been subjected to or had witnessed physical violence and only 13.3% had experienced or witnessed incivility during the previous year. The most frequent reason of violence was the long waiting time before consultation (62.5%, p=0.003). Nearly 93% of physical and non-physical violence had different psychological effects. A decline in the quality of job performance was reported by 96% of trainee physicians. Discussion Health care professionals are in direct contact with vulnerable people who endanger any normal social relationship. Trainee physicians were frequently exposed to violence. This phenomenon has serious personal and professional impacts. Conclusion There is a strong need for the development of preventive programs in order to manage violence in emergency departments mainly in focusing on security measurements’ strengthening.