Supervisors info:
Αθανάσιος Δουζένης, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Ιωάννης Μιχόπουλος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Παναγιώτης Φερεντίνος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
The international literature has multiple references to the violent and difficult patient and the scientific associations have proposed guidelines and protocols to manage aggression and violence from the recipients of health services. However, there is little literature on attitudes of lack of respect and aggression of health professionals in their workplace. Violence and ill-treatment among workers occur in hospital settings, where high stress conditions can lead to mistreatment ranging from "denial" to physical assault. These behaviors undermine security, reduce workers' productivity and welfare and create a hostile working environment. Interventions to reduce violence and ill-treatment among workers require an understanding of their underlying causes. However, there is a lack of research based on actual, reported incidents in healthcare.
1. Objectives of the survey
The objectives and assumptions of this research were:
• To investigate the characteristics of the sample
• To investigate the relationship between aggression, narcissism and bond dimensions
• To investigate the differences in the aggression of the occupational categories under study (doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, other scientific staff)
• To investigate the differences in the aggressiveness of the study groups according to the educational level
• To investigate the differences in the aggressiveness of the groups under study according to the context
• To investigate the differences in the aggression of the groups studied by gender
2. Method
The sample of the survey consisted of 192 health professionals selected by the symptomatic sampling method. The sample consisted of 43 men and 149 women. Participants' ages ranged from 20 to 60 years, namely 24.5% were 20-30 years old, 43.8% were 31-40 years old, 26.6% were 41-50 years old and 5, 1% 51-60 years old. Of the participants 41.7% were single, 48.9% married and 9.4% divorced. One hundred participants (52.1%) were mental health professionals and 92 (47.9%) health professionals in other specialties.
The study was carried out by completing the appropriate questionnaires, which were converted into an electronic form by the researcher. The questionnaires were the Aggressive Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992), in the greek edition (Tsorbatzoudis, 2006), the Questionnaire of narcissistic personality (Raskin and Hall, 1979), in the greek edition (Kokkosis et al. (Fraley et al, 2000), in the greek edition (Tsagarakis et al., 2007) (appendix 3).
In addition, there was a form containing demographic information such as gender, age, marital status, educational level, workplace, work experience.
3. Analyzes
For the clinical and demographic characteristics of the sample, descriptive statistics (frequency distribution and central trend indicators) were used. For the correlation analyzes the Pearson r correlation coefficient was used. The one-way ANNOVA was used to study the differences. For the effects regression analysis was used.
4. Results
There is a positive correlation of anger with physical aggression (r = .459, p = .000), verbal aggression (r = .496, p = .000), hostility (r = .562, p = .001) , also the dimension of anxiety in the type of bond (r = .258, p = .000). There is also a positive correlation of verbal aggression with physical aggression (r = .255, p = .000). Finally, hostility has a positive correlation with physical aggression (r = .459, p = .000) and verbal aggression (r = .296, p = .000). The dimension of avoidance in the type of linkage has a positive correlation with physical aggression (r = .269, p = .000) and hostility (r = .301, p = .000), while the dimension of anxiety in the type of bond seems to have positive correlation with anger (r = .258, p = .000), physical aggression (r = .251, p = .000), hostility (r = .495, p = .000) (r = .540, p = .000). Narcissism appears to have a positive correlation with physical aggression (r = .157, p = .032) and verbal aggression (r = .302, p = .000).
Men (M = 1.70, SD = .602) show significantly higher physical aggression than women (M = 1.53, SD = .445).
The nurses (M = 2.30, SD = .724) show significantly more hostility than physicians (M = 1.92, SD = .583), paramedical staff (M = 1.93, SD = M = 1.89, SD = .530).
Higher education graduates (M = 1.88, SD = .736) show significantly higher physical aggression than graduates of primary and secondary school (M = 1.75, SD = .475), TEI-AEL graduates (M = 1.64, SD = .580) and holders of postgraduate-doctorate degrees (M = 1.47, SD = .344).
Health Professionals who work in General Hospitals (M = 2.19, SD = .662) show significantly more hostility than employees in Special Psychiatric Hospitals (M = 1.84, SD = .555) and non-hospital workers (M = 1.98, SD = 629).
5. Conclusions
The findings of this research confirm the existence of a positive correlation among the subclasses of aggression (anger, physical aggression, verbal aggression, hostility) and between the dimensions of the type of bond (avoidance, anxiety), too. From the results, the profile of the worker with the highest risk of aggressive expression seems to be: a male nurse who is secondary school educated and he is working in a General Hospital.
