Medical students' view on violence in health and its effect on their specialty preferences

Aim: This study aimed to determine the views and perspectives of medical students regarding violence in healthcare and to examine how their perceptions of violence influence their specialty preferences.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between June and July 2022 with 514 medical students (269 first-year and 245 sixth-year) who participated voluntarily. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a 32-item questionnaire developed based on a literature review. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 27.0, and a Type I error level of 5% was considered statistically significant.Results: Overall, 45.9% of the students reported having been exposed to or having witnessed violence in healthcare settings. Logistic regression analysis showed that students who felt hopeless about the realization of their professional expectations were 7.296 times more likely to be unwilling to pursue residency training. In contrast, students who identified inadequate criminal sanctions (OR = 3.165) and decreased respect for physicians and healthcare professionals (OR = 2.819) as the main causes of violence in healthcare were less likely to express unwillingness to pursue residency training.Conclusions: Nearly half of the participants had been exposed to or had witnessed violence in healthcare. Students’ perceptions of the causes of violence were significantly associated with their intention to pursue residency training. These findings highlight the impact of professional dissatisfaction and perceptions of workplace violence on medical career planning.