Bullying perceptions among post-graduate dental students of Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Introduction: of bullying are common in field of medicine. However, the extent of this problem remains unknown. Bullying among students and professionals has been studied in developed countries, but has received limited, practically, no attention in India. This study was thus planned with an aim to know the prevalence and the perceptions of bullying by the post-graduate dental college students of Andhra Pradesh, India. Objectives: This study aimed to find out bullying practices experienced by the students and the sources of bullying. To assess the extent of reporting of bullying faced at the workplace. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among post-graduate students of five randomly selected dental colleges of A.P. The students, belonging to 2, 3 years of the course were approached to fill in a self-administered questionnaire to record details regarding bullying practices, sources of bullying and the extent of reporting to the respective authorities. Results: A total of 156 post-graduates participated in the study. Bullying was experienced by 79% of them during their training. Pressure to overwork (69.9%) and threat to professional status (60.3%) were the most prevalent forms of bullying. Main source for bullying was the department staff (89.1%) followed by administrative staff (16%). Only 34% of prevalent bullying was being reported to authorities and no anti bullying policies and measures are in vogue at present in the dental colleges. Conclusions: The prevalence of bullying is high and it acts as a chief stress or among the post-graduate dental students.

“It's just inappropriate”: Harassment of dental students by patients

“…The reported prevalence of sexual harassment of medical students by patients ranges from 12% to 71% 3 . However, there is little research on the prevalence of harassment of dental students, and most existing research focuses only on sexual harassment by patients or on harassment from fellow students and instructors 11,12 . One Brazilian study reported that 9% of dental students had experienced sexual harassment by a patient or a patient's relative 8 .…”

“…One Brazilian study reported that 9% of dental students had experienced sexual harassment by a patient or a patient's relative 8 . Research in a dental school in India found no harassment of students by patients 11 . However, given that rates of harassment by patients reported by dental professionals are similar to those of other health professions, 13 it is likely that the prevalence of harassment of students by patients is higher than the existing literature suggests.…”

“…3 However, there is little research on the prevalence of harassment of dental students, and most existing research focuses only on sexual harassment by patients or on harassment from fellow students and instructors. 11,12 One Brazilian study reported that 9% of dental students had experienced sexual harassment by a patient or a patient's relative 8 . Research in a dental school in India found no harassment of students by patients.…”

Measuring workplace violence for clinical dental hygienists

“…Sources influencing emotional labour included both clients, such as patients and their family members, and members of their own professional organizations, including supervisors and peers 18 . However, research on workplace violence experienced by dental hygienists in dental clinics is scarce, while research on similar violence experienced by dentists 19 and dental college students 20 is comparatively more abundant.…”

Healthy and Respectful Workplaces: The Experiences of Dental Hygienists in Canada

“…In some cases, no action was taken following the workplace incident, and no workplace policies appeared to be in place to manage such incidents (Garvin and Sledge 1992;Binmadi and Alblowi 2019). International research on workplace violence among health care practitioners in various fields shows similar results, with factors such as the age, sex, occupation, and work hours of the health care practitioner and the characteristics of the health care institution and system being independent determinants of experiencing workplace violence (Lahari et al 2012;Abdellah and Salama 2017;Pinar et al 2017;Norton et al 2017). Workload pressures, occupational stress, and organizational culture are also known to be contributing factors to workplace violence (Sanders and Turcotte 2010;Carter et al 2013;Berthelsen et al 2017).…”