Prevalence of mistreatment among physiotherapy interns in Nigeria: a preliminary study

Abstract

Background Healthcare professionals with the least experience, such as students and interns, are likely to face some form of mistreatments in the world of health professionals. Mistreatment has a negative impact on the victim’s well-being as it results in psychological distress such as burn out, lack of motivation and reduced performance. This study aims to explore mistreatment among physiotherapy interns in Nigeria with a view to protecting the future of the profession. Result Most of the participant were male (57.5%) and doing their internship in the northwestern part of the country (42.5%). Forty interns participated in the study, and 2/3 of them had experience of mistreatment. The most common type of mistreatment was yelling or shouting (60%), followed by someone taking credit for what an intern did (55%), humiliation or belittlement (50%), and threat of an extension beyond the 12 months (27.5%). Eighty-seven percent reported that the mistreatment changes their relationship with the perpetrator. Mistreatment led to stress in 70% of the respondent, affected the self-confidence of 62.5%, and led to decreased clinical output in 45% of the participants. Forty percent of the participants acquired depression due to the mistreatment. Conclusion Most physiotherapy interns experience mistreatment during the 1-year mandatory clinical internship. Verbal abuse is the most prevalent form of mistreatment, while the least is physical abuse. This study found that mistreatment has adverse effects on the health and work output of physiotherapy interns.