What do clinical resident doctors think about workplace violence? A qualitative study comprising focus group discussions and thematic analysis from a tertiary care center of India

Background: Workplace violence (WPV) is a significant problem in both developed and developing countries among healthcare workers. The study aims to examine the perspective of resident doctors on various aspects of WPV to promote a better understanding of the complexity of the problem of WPV at a tertiary care center in India.

Material and methods: Seven focus group discussions were conducted with resident doctors from various departments, which were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling. Discussions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim to English. Thematic analysis was done using Atlas. ti 8 to generate themes, subthemes, and codes from the discussions.

Results: A total of 39 resident doctors with a mean age of 28.0 ± 3.8 years were recruited. The themes that emerged during the analysis are as follows: types of WPV, risk factors for WPV, the impact of WPV, and mitigation strategies for WPV.

Conclusion: Exposure to WPV is not uncommon in India. Factors associated from individual to policy level are involved in subjugating the episodes of violence. Findings from this study will contribute in devising mitigation strategies for the same.