Thessaloniki: Moral harassment in public hospitals and the AUTH was experienced by the majority of employees

Students’ research shows that the majority of the employees in the AUTH and hospitals in the , suffered moral harassment in the workplace (mobbing) seems to have experienced the majority of employees in a public hospital in Thessaloniki and also in the AUTH, according to the results of two studies presented by posted announcements at the 13th Scientific Conference of the Department of Medicine AUTH, held 6-9 March, at the Center for the Dissemination of Research Results AUTH. The results of the studies show that he experienced mobbing 83% of health professionals working in a public hospital (which is not named) and participated in the study as well as 75.2% of the employees in the AUTH who responded to the questionnaires. Mobbing effect: A modern study at a Greek public hospital, presented on 7 March (foyer-1 KEDEA), was carried out in order to investigate the frequency, forms and extent of the mobbing phenomenon, with the ultimate aim of raising awareness of health services and taking measures to limit and prevent it. The results obtained from the responses of 200 health professionals (of which 41.5% men) showed that 83% of participants reported that they had experienced mobbing, 45% of them daily/nearly daily. Moral harassment at work had various forms: 54% said they were not allowed to express themselves, 19% that they were constantly interrupted, 92% that they felt isolated, 88% that their professional duties were used as punishment. 47% thought he had suffered psychological violence. The study indicates that there was a correlation of specific parameters with gender (women more frequently) or workplace (MCU more frequently). Participants attributed hostile behaviors against them “in the general bad atmosphere at work” (66%). 53% said they talked about the problem with a colleague, while 30% said that he had addressed the staff management or representative or labour inspector. “An important percentage of participants said they often face behaviors indicative of work ethic harassment expected to influence work quality. Informing health professionals about early recognition of the phenomenon is essential. It is imperative to create a safe working environment, protective for the quality of life, mental and physical health of workers, since their safety is an element of quality in health care” refers to the conclusion of the study carried out by D. Delihatzoglou, H. Tyrodimos, Z. Tsimtsiou, I. Th. Dardavesis, P. Panathopoulou from the Department of Medicine AUTH. The second study, entitled “Mobbing at public sector workplaces: The impact on the performance, relations and health of workers, which will be presented on 8 March (mphitheatre III KEDEA), was carried out in order to detect the phenomenon of moral harassment (mobbing) at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Out of the total of 2,728 AUTH employees voluntarily responded 200 to the anonymous questionnaires on which the study was based. “The majority of the sample belonged to the 40–59 age group (69.4%), with women outnumbering (63.6%). 75.2% of respondents stated that he had suffered moral harassment with more frequent “verbal” violence (52.7%). In verbal and psychological violence a higher value was observed in Laboratory-Teaching Personnel (64%) and (52%) respectively. Women reported more often having suffered sexual violence (7.7%), with the highest sexual harassment rate appearing on the Administrative Staff (8%). In addition, those who faced violence reported a reduction in their work performance (63%), while the same pattern is also observed in industrial relations, where on average (55.4%) identified marked changes. Finally, in the field of health, 77% stated that their quality of life was disrupted, with a main appearance of psychosomatic [72] and psycho-emotional [65] events” reported – among others – in the study. The study concludes that the phenomenon of moral harassment is real to the employees of the AUTH, with impact on an individual, social and labour level, affecting the functioning and effectiveness of the Foundation itself and prevention measures are proposed through a variety of educational information actions, which can help overcome the phenomenon. The study was carried out with the cooperation of the Departments of Medical Dentistry and Theology of the AUTH as well as the Laboratory of Histology Embryology AUTH by St. Barbutis, D. Kavvada, P. Anastasiadou, A. Keramas, Ch. Tsironis and Th. Papamitsou.