Whose fault is it? Attribution of causes of patient violence among exposed and unexposed community‐based family physicians

Abstract

Extensive research has dealt with violence directed at healthcare workers in hospital settings; however, few studies have examined community-based settings. Furthermore, there is also scant literature regarding the perceptions of healthcare providers who were exposed to violence, compared to those who were not. This study aims to narrow these gaps in the literature by examining community-based family physicians' (CBFPs) perceptions in a large national Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) regarding patient-initiated violence. Using a voluntary online survey, directed at all CBFPs working at the HMO, 412 CBFPs were surveyed on the following issues: exposure to violence initiated by patients or their family members; perceptions of violent occurrences and possible safety measures. The differences between CBFPs who had been exposed to violence and those who had not were compared. The majority of CBFPs reported experiencing verbal attacks (64%), and a small percentage experienced property-related violence (11.7%) or physical violence (3.4%). Comparing CBFPs who were exposed to violence with those who were not, regarding their perceptions of the 'causes of violence', revealed three differentiating factors: 'waiting time', 'failure to meet the patient's expectations' and 'the nature How to cite this article: Enosh G, Freund A, Goldblatt H, Drach-Zahavy A, Guindy M, Ofer-Bialer G. Whose fault is it? Attribution of causes of patient violence among exposed and unexposed community-based family physicians. Health Soc

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