A terrifying problem: healthcare professionals’ homicides

Abstract

Background: As in all over the world, healthcare professionals in Turkey are increasingly affected by violence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate homicide, which is the most severe form of violence against health care professionals.

Methods: Information regarding characteristics of the incidents, victims, and perpetrators were gathered from the media reports subjecting murders of healthcare professionals between 2000 and 2019 were compiled and discussed with descriptive statistics.

Results: There were 60 homicides involving health professionals (35 male, 25 female) between 2000 and 2019. Homicides of health professionals were found to have increased significantly between 2015 and 2019. The most common crime scene was the victim's workplace, whereas the most common method of homicide was the use of firearms. In female healthcare professional homicides, the murderer was a former or existing partner in most cases.

Conclusions: The assessment of cultural factors, and the performance of various studies to prevent homicide of health professionals is crucial. Policies against individual weaponry and the prevention of armed persons entering healthcare facilities could be useful. In addition, regulations prohibiting targeting health professionals as a scapegoat for system failures will help address this problem.