PERCEPTION, ATTITUDE AND AWARENESS ABOUT VIOLENCE AGAINST DOCTORS IN INDIA AMONG GENERAL POPULATION OF EITHER GENDER

Devesh Bafna, Antaraa Bhattacharya and Dr. Srabani Bhattacharya*

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional study was conducted among 110 adult respondents. Their age group was 18yrs to above 60yrs of either gender. This study was conducted in the state of Maharashtra, India. Among the respondents 55.5% were Male and 44.5% were female. The age group 18-30yrs consisted of 54.5% of the participants, 31-45yrs had 10.9%, 46-60yrs has 30% and above 60yrs comprised of 4.5% of the participants. 93.6% were urban population and 6.4% was rural population. 46.4% of participants were students and 53.6% were in service. 93.4% of the participants were aware about the violence against doctors. 3.6% of the participants have ‘been a part of/ observed/ wanted to/ promoted any sort of assault, verbal/ physical, against a doctor’. 5.5% of them felt the government has done enough to control/ prevent/ handle these situations. According to the participants, the reasons for increasing violence against doctors in ‘doctor related issues’ were- 10% lack of communication, 30% weakness of the law, 30.9% poor hospital security, 15.5% reduced time per patient, 4.5% poor training of doctors, 3.6% misbehaviour of the doctors, 30.2% poor knowledge of health-related issues. The most alarming problem is lack of inculcation of empathy.

Keywords: Violence against Doctors, Perception, Attitude, General population.