Awareness and fear of violence among medical and social work students.

BACKGROUND As violence escalates in US society, so does its presence as an issue in the lives of patients and as a cause of presenting problems. This study compared the training of medical and social work students in how to deal with violence and personal experience with workplace violence. METHODS One hundred medical students and 100 social work students in the same state university system were surveyed about their awareness, experience, and fear of patient violence; their classroom training about violence in the lives of patients; and training in management of patient violence toward professionals. RESULTS Forty-six medical students and 78 social work students responded. Medical students were found to experience more violence than social work students (80% versus 44% were aware of violence in the workplace; 9% versus 6% had been physically assaulted). However, social work students had received more training than medical students about ways to manage patient violence (31% versus 23% trained in verbal de-escalation of violence). CONCLUSIONS Violence education should be developed with focus on the prevention of work-related violence for both professional groups.