Table 3.
Responses to and impacts of clinical violence, and the differences for those with either physical violence, verbal abuse or both (N=379)
| Responses after the clinical violence | Physical violence only | Verbal abuse only | Students experienced both physical violence and verbal abuse | ||
| Physical violence | Verbal | Wilcoxon signed-ranks test | |||
| n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | P value (χ2; df) | |
| Responses to the incident | N=68 | N=204 | N=99 | N=100 | |
| Took no action | 21 (69.1) | 108 (52.9) | 28 (28.3) | 60 (60.0) | <0.001 (27.46; 1) |
| Tried to pretend it never happened | 3 (4.4) | 53 (26.0) | 12 (12.1) | 19 (19.0) | 0.11 (2.58; 1) |
| Told the person to stop | 22 (32.8) | 29 (14.2) | 54 (54.5) | 28 (28.0) | <0.001 (19.88; 1) |
| Told friends/family | 11 (16.2) | 51 (25.0) | 14 (14.1) | 28 (28.0) | 0.006 (7.54; 1) |
| Tried to defend myself physically | 18 (26.5) | 14 (6.9) | 26 (26.3) | 16 (16.0) | 0.03 (4.55; 1) |
| Sought counselling | 2 (2.9) | 11 (5.4) | 1 (1.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0.32 (1.00; 1) |
| Reported incident to a senior staff member | 24 (35.3) | 24 (11.8) | 24 (24.2) | 12 (12.0) | 0.01 (6.00; 1) |
| Sought help from University | 2 (2.9) | 5 (2.5) | 1 (1.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0.32 (1.00; 1) |
| Completed incident/accident form | 3 (4.4) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (1.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0.32 (1.00; 1) |
| Took time off | N=68 | N=203 | N=98 | N=100 | |
| No | 69 (100.0) | 183 (90.1) | 98 (100.0) | 96 (96.0) | 0.046 (4.00; 1) |
| Yes | 0 (0.0) | 20 (9.9) | 0 (0.0) | 4 (4.0) | |
| Incident could be prevented | N=66 | N=204 | N=96 | N=100 | |
| No | 35 (53.0) | 138 (67.6) | 58 (60.4) | 87 (87.0) | <0.001 (18.78; 1) |
| Yes | 31 (47.0) | 66 (32.4) | 38 (39.6) | 13 (13.0) | |
| Formally reported the incident | N=67 | N=209 | N=98 | N=95 | |
| No | 61 (91.0) | 198 (94.7) | 94 (95.9) | 88 (92.6) | 0.18 (1.80; 1) |
| Yes | 6 (0.0) | 11 (5.3) | 4 (4.0) | 7 (7.4) | |
| Reasons for not formally reporting | N=57 | N=187 | N=91 | N=83 | |
| It was not important | 43 (75.4) | 104 (55.6) | 58 (63.7) | 54 (65.1) | 0.51 (0.43; 1) |
| Felt ashamed | 3 (5.3) | 3 (1.6) | 4 (4.4) | 3 (3.6) | 0.71 (0.14; 1) |
| Felt guilty | 1 (1.8) | 3 (1.6) | 2 (2.2) | 2 (2.4) | 1.00 (<0.001; 1) |
| Useless | 11 (19.3) | 87 (46.5) | 37 (40.7) | 37 (44.6) | 0.29 (1.14; 1) |
| Afraid of negative consequences | 2 (3.5) | 26 (13.9) | 3 (3.3) | 7 (8.4) | 0.10 (2.78; 1) |
| Did not know who to report | 6 (10.5) | 31 (16.6) | 12 (13.2) | 8 (9.6) | 0.56 (0.33; 1) |
| No one encourages me to report | 9 (15.8) | 29 (15.5) | 7 (7.7) | 6 (7.2) | 0.25 (1.33; 1) |
| Effect of the clinical violence | Mean±SD (range) | Mean±SD (range) | Mean±SD (range) | Mean±SD (range) | Pair t-test, p value (t; df) |
| Negative feeling (average score of 10 items ranged from 1 to 5) | N=65 | N=209 | N=100 | N=100 | |
| 1.49±0.50 (1–3) | 2.04±0.89 (1–5) | 1.59±0.63 (0–4) | 1.81±0.88 (1–4) | 0.006 (–2.81; 99) | |
| Negative effects on clinical performance (average score of 4 items ranged from 1 to 5) | N=65 | N=210 | N=100 | N=100 | |
| 1.34±0.50 (1–3) | 1.94±1.00 (1–5) | 1.39±0.64 (1–3.75) | 1.65±0.97 (1–5) | 0.008 (–2.70; 99) | |
| Disturbed by the incident(s) (average score of 4 items ranged from 1 to 5) | N=65 | N=209 | N=100 | N=100 | |
| 1.38±0.51 (1–3) | 1.95±0.99 (1–5) | 1.42±0.62 (1–4.25) | 1.61±0.85 (1–4.5) | 0.02 (–2.39; 99) | |
| Intention to leave before the violence | N=66 | N=210 | N=100 | N=100 | |
| 1.48±0.75 (1–4) | 1.68±0.55 (1–5) | 1.47±0.69 (1–3) | 1.61±0.85 (1–5) | ||
| Intention to leave after the violence | N=66 | N=210 | N=100 | N=100 | |
| 1.73±0.90 (1–4) | 2.18±1.19 (1–5) | 1.69±0.96 (1–5) | 1.99±1.20 (1–5) |
| Pair t-test, p value (t; df) | Pair t-test, p value (t; df) | ||||
| Difference between intention to leave before and after the violence (before–after) | <0.001 (−4.23, 65) | <0.001 (−8.65, 209) | <0.001 (−4.36; 99) | <0.001 (−4.98; 99) | |
0%–0.05% of missing data.