Physical Violence Against 115 Emergency Medical Personnel and its Related Factors in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, 2019

Nowadays, given the increased violence in medical centers and emergency medical personnel encounter with various types of violence, it is important to assess the related factors as well as their frequency and take actions to decrease them. This study aims at investigating physical violence against 115 emergency medical personnel and its related factors in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on emergency medical personnel of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. 240 individuals were selected through systematic random sampling. Occupational Violence Questionnaire (Four sections: demographic information, physical violence, response to violence and violence in the last mission) and Goldenberg GHQ-28 General Health Questionnaire were used to gather data, which were analyzed using SPSS software (version 22) and descriptive and inferential statistical tests.

According to the results of this study, 29.6 percent of personnel experienced violent physicalaggression during their work and the most violent acts were physical coarsening (54.9%). 76.1percent of violent actions occurred on the scene of the accidents and co-rider of the injuredperson were initiators of violent behaviors (73.2%). There was a statistically significantcorrelation between violent aggressive actions and recent uprisings of the country in the past sixmonths (p=0.02). The percentage of aggressive actions against the personnel in their lastcommission, were verbal insults (82%), physical aggression (14.6%), the cultural joke (3%) andsexual misbehavior (0%). The aggressive actions and insults in their last commissions of thepersonnel were correlated with their type of employment (p=0.03), age (p=0.03) and workhistory (p=0.01).

There is a high prevalence of physical violence against emergency medical personnel. Accordingly, providing the target personnel with communication skills and anger management
trainings and pursuing violence by authorities seems essential to eliminate occupational violence