Is the Experience of Workplace Violence the Same – General Versus Hospital Medicine Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: The present study aimed to assess the frequency of workplace violence from patients and patients’ relatives and friends experienced by health care workers. Method and Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study included health care workers from hospital departments and family medicine practices. Data were collected during December 2016 using a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire. Out of 163 distributed questionnaires, 138 (84.7%) were returned suitable for analysis. Participants: Respondents were health workers in the Department of Family Medicine of the Health Care Center Mostar, the Department of Gynaecology and Urology at the University Hospital in Mostar, and the Department of Psychiatry at Cantonal Hospital in Mostar. Results: Some form of aggression at work was experienced by 79.7% of respondents. Verbal aggression was more frequent in the Family Medicine Department, while physical violence was more prevalent in hospital settings, specifically in the Psychiatry Department. Physical forms of aggression were significantly more frequently experienced by nurses than by physicians.