The Effect of Violence in Healthcare on the Hopelessness Levels of 3rd- and 6th-Year Medical Students

The Impact of Violence in Healthcare on Medical Students

Abstract

Witnessing violence in health starts from student years and medical students are affected by violence as much as practicing physicians. In this study, we aimed to examine the impact of violence and media content on Ankara University Medical Faculty 3rd and 6th year students and its relationship with their hopelessness levels. This cross-sectional study included 135 participants from 3rd year and 151 participants from 6th year. Data were collected using a 25-question questionnaire and the Beck Hopelessness Scale. Analyses were conducted using SPSS 30. 51.4% of participants were female, the mean age was 22.6±2.8 years, and 14.7% had witnessed physical violence, 67.5% verbal violence, and 24.8% psychological violence against healthcare workers during their lifetime. 52.8% of the students think that the media does not reflect the news on violence impartially, 59.8% think that the news increase violence, and 57.7% think that the news affect their career plans. When asked about the causes of violence in health, the answer "health policies of the country" was selected more frequently in 6th year (p<0.001). When asked "the most effective method for preventing violence in health", "harsher legal sanctions" was selected most frequently in both groups (68.9% and 72.8%). The mean scale score was 7.2±4.7 and there was no difference between the groups (p=0.177). In 6th year, those who encountered more than 3-5 violent news items per week scored higher than those who encountered them at most once a month, while there was no difference in 3rd year. In both groups, those who stated that news on violence affected their career planning had high scores. In 3rd year, those who witnessed physical violence scored 57.18 (6.04-540.97) times higher than those who did not, those who used Youtube 1-2 hours a day scored 7.14 (2.06-24.77) times higher than those who used Youtube less than 1 hour a day, those who regretted their choice of medical faculty scored 17.28 (3.60-83.02) times higher than those who did not, those who thought that news about violence affected their career planning scored 5.83 (1.28-26.60) times higher than those who did not, and those who thought that they would be more respected abroad scored 9.96 (1.03-96.16) times higher than those who did not (p<0.05). In 6th year, those with chronic/psychiatric disease scored 5.63 (1.87-16.94) times higher than those without, those who did not think that the cause of violence was dissatisfaction with treatment scored 3.27 (1.39-7.72) times higher than those who did, those who thought that the cause of violence was insufficient security measures scored 3.11 (1.09-8.88) times higher than those who did not, and those who regretted their choice of medical faculty scored 4.74 (2.04-11.01) times higher than those who did not (p<0.05). The results suggest that news reports of violence may have negative effects on the mental health of clinical semester students and that it is important to develop appropriate interventions in this context. Psychosocial support programs should be developed to protect the professional motivation and mental health of medical students, and measures should be increased to prevent violence.