Evaluation of mobbing perception level and related factors in health workers

Introduction and Aim: Mobbing has been described as 'Psychological terror committed by one or more people systematically with hostile and unethical methods to another person' by Heinz Leymann. The term mobbing was first coined by Australian scientist Konrad Lorenz in the 1960s. Afterwards, Swedish scientist Peter Paul Heinemann emphasized the acts of harassment and violence seen in children with her work named "Mobbing: Group Violence Among Children" in 1972 by evaluating the abuse and violence that children show to each other at school. There are many studies about mobbing in our country and around the world. Most of the studies in the field of health have been done by considering a specific area or group. It is important for the literature that a study to be conducted to show the exposure to mobbing in all areas of the health sector is important. This study was carried out to determine the mobbing perception levels of healthcare professionals in Dicle University Faculty of Medicine and to evaluate the related factors. Material and Methods: The universe of this cross-sectional descriptive study consists of 415 healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses and midwives working at Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospitals. A form questioning the sociodemographic characteristics and a questionnaire including the Leymann Psychological Terror Scale were applied to the healthcare personnel specified between February 1, 2020 - May 31, 2020. In our study, the relationship between sociodemographic factors and characteristics of their professional life and the level of mobbing perception was examined, and the mobbing perception levels of the employees were evaluated. The analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS 24 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) package program. Results: 43.6% of the participants were men and 56.4% were women. The most concentrated age group of the participants was 29-33 years with 44%, and the least concentrated age group was> 49 years old with 1.4%. The majority of the participants are married individuals (61%). 230 of the participants (55.4%) have no children. Considering the occupational groups of the participants, it is seen that the most doctors are with 63.1%. No significant relationship was found between the participants' age, gender, marital status, presence of children, occupation, unit, professional year, working year in the unit, working style, the number of shifts held monthly and the number of coworkers and mobbing perception levels. A significant correlation was found between the number of supervisors in their workplace, their professional satisfaction, and the chance of re-choosing their job and their mobbing perception levels. Conclusion: As a result of our research, it was observed that the perception of mobbing was low in healthcare workers, the low number of supervisors in the unit where they work and the high professional satisfaction of the employees decreased their perception of mobbing. This result shows that institutions have an important role in increasing the sense of belonging and professional satisfaction of employees. Increasing the employees' sense of belonging and professional satisfaction will decrease their perception of mobbing; This situation will positively affect the individual and social health status and quality of life. KEYWORDS: Mobbing, intimidation, psychological terror, health workers.