title: Aggression in the work environment of physiotherapists.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aggression in the medical environment can take on different forms. It can be inflicted both by patients and workmates and may also cause a rise of aggressive behavior performed by the physiotherapists themselves. The aim of the study was to evaluate possible danger that may occur in the working environment of physiotherapists as well as to assess the correlation between such factors as the length of professional experience and exposure to the aggression inflicted by patients and workmates in the workplace with the level of aggression occurring within the professional group of physiotherapists.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted among 50 physiotherapists from Opole and the Silesian Voivodships in Poland. Two types of questionnaires were used: the author's own questionnaire, assessing exposure of the physiotherapists to aggression in the workplace, and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. The results were analyzed with the Statistica 8.0 application.
  
  
  RESULTS
  60% of participants suffered from patients' verbal aggression, 8% from physical aggression and 26% from the patients' emotional self-aggression at least twice a month. The study showed a minor correlation between the duration of the length of professional experience and the level of hostility (r=0.2; p>0.05). There is a considerable impact of negative emotions present in relations with workmates at the workplace causing mainly increase of general aggression among physiotherapists and hostility. Similarly, negative emotions that may appear in relations between psychiatrists and patients show a positive correlation with the level of general aggression developed by doctors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It can be observed that there is a huge impact of the impulsive behaviour and attitude (presented both by patients and workmates in the workplaces) on the appearance of aggressive actions by physiotherapists (especially anger and hostility). Further research in this field is needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. anna.szczegielniak@gmail.com
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Szczegielniak
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Skowronek
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krysta
authors.forename: Irena
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Krupka-Matuszczyk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000786:Anger; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010379:Peer Group; D059825:Physical Therapists / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011044:Poland; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace / Q000706:statistics & numerical data