Table 3 Characteristics of the perpetrators and responses to psychological violence
| Â | Psychological violence | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Physicians (N = 645) | SRTPs (N = 133) | Chi-square | |||
N | % | N | % | p | |
Type of perpetrator | < 0.001a | ||||
‘External’ | |||||
 Patient | 178 | 27.6 | 34 | 25.6 |  |
 Patient’s relative or friend | 438 | 67.9 | 57 | 42.9 |  |
‘Internal’ | |||||
 Colleague, staff | 15 | 2.3 | 15 | 11.3 |  |
 Supervisors | 7 | 1.1 | 25 | 18.8 |  |
 Other | 7 | 1.1 | 2 | 1.5 |  |
Outcome for perpetrators | < 0.001b | ||||
 No punishment | 304 | 47.1 | 90 | 67.7 |  |
 Orally warned | 211 | 32.7 | 15 | 11.3 |  |
 Care discontinued | 5 | 0.8 | 3 | 2.3 |  |
 Reported to the police | 83 | 12.9 | 3 | 2.3 |  |
 Prosecuted | 9 | 1.4 | 0 | 0 |  |
 Other | 9 | 1.4 | 5 | 3.8 |  |
 Unclear | 24 | 3.7 | 17 | 12.8 |  |
Whether reported |  |  |  |  | < 0.001 |
 Yes | 226 | 35.0 | 20 | 15.0 |  |
 No | 419 | 65.0 | 113 | 85.0 |  |
Reactions to such events | |||||
 No reaction | 191 | 29.6 | 80 | 60.2 | < 0.001 |
 Pretended nothing happened | 182 | 28.2 | 52 | 39.1 | 0.013 |
 Stopped it | 206 | 31.9 | 37 | 27.8 | 0.351 |
 Reported to friends or relatives | 185 | 28.7 | 17 | 12.8 | < 0.001 |
 Reported to other staff members | 30 | 4.7 | 6 | 4.5 | 0.056 |
 Reported to supervisors | 281 | 43.6 | 46 | 34.6 | 0.020 |
 Received psychological counselling | 27 | 4.2 | 11 | 8.3 | 0.944 |
 Considered changing place of study/work | 206 | 31.9 | 29 | 21.8 | 0.047 |
 Submitted an injury-accident list | 24 | 3.7 | 4 | 3.0 | 0.883a |
 Claimed compensation | 11 | 1.7 | 7 | 5.3 | 0.013 |
 Brought litigation | 35 | 5.4 | 3 | 2.3 | 0.186a |
 Sought help from the Medical Association or another trade association | 25 | 3.9 | 5 | 3.8 | 0.949 |
 Other | 24 | 3.7 | 10 | 7.5 | 0.051 |