Exploring the roots of violence in last year medical students (interns) in Ecuador

Background: Medical interns are frequently victims of a hierarchical system, suffering various forms of abuse, ranging from psychological harm to sexual threats and physical assault. Objective: Determine the prevalence of violence and identify the factors that contribute to it in medical interns. Methods: Cross-sectional survey study with 161 participants. The survey "Workplace Violence in The Health Sector Country Case Studies Research Instruments Survey Questionnaire 2003" was used. Results: 59% have suffered some type of violence, 87.3% psychological violence, 3.1% physical violence and 9.4% both types of violence. In psychological violence, verbal aggression was the most prevalent (76.6%). Health personnel are the main source of violence, in psychological violence it was nursing (32.2%) and in physical violence, senior doctors (41.6%). In both types of violence, the majority perceives it as an everyday event. The cause of violence lies in the behavior of the aggressor due to abuse of authority (31%) and stress in 27%. Only 18.1% know the policies to confront violence. Most do not report the incident mainly due to fear. Conclusion: Violence towards medical students manifests itself in different ways and emanates from hierarchical positions, this can have consequences on the professional and emotional development of future doctors.