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Occupational Medicine Advance Access originally published online on May 21, 2009
Occupational Medicine 2009 59(7):472-475; doi:10.1093/occmed/kqp068
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Workplace violence: a survey of paediatric residents

Karen Judy and Jill Veselik

Department of Pediatrics, Loyola University Medical Center, 2160 South First Avenue, Maywood, IL 60153, USA

Background Paediatric residents are often exposed to verbal abuse and/or physical assaults from patients and patients’ families during the course of their training. Residents may benefit from further training on how to prevent and respond to workplace violence.

Aims To determine the prevalence of workplace violence in paediatric residency training programmes.

Methods In 2007, a 25-item web-based questionnaire about experiences of verbal and/or physical abuse while on duty was distributed to 1211 paediatric residents at all training levels from 25 paediatric programmes.

Results A total of 541 questionnaires were returned giving a 45% response rate. In total, 33% of the respondents had been verbally abused or physically assaulted by patients and/or patients’ families during their residency programme, although verbal abuse was much more common than physical assaults. In total, 71% of respondents reported having no teaching about workplace violence during their residency training. The majority (74%) indicated that they would like to receive more training in managing angry patients and families.

Conclusions Paediatric residents are often exposed to verbal threats during the course of their work. They are also at risk of physical assaults by angry patients and/or families. Paediatric residents require more training on how to prevent and respond to workplace violence, and this important topic should be incorporated into the paediatric residency curriculum.

Keywords      Paediatric residents; physical assaults; verbal abuse; workplace violence

Correspondence to: Karen Judy, Department of Pediatrics, Loyola University Medical Center, 2160 South First Avenue, Maywood, IL 60153, USA. Tel: +1 708 327 9131; fax: +1 708 327 9111; e-mail: kjudy{at}lumc.edu


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