Awareness And Knowledge Of ‘The Kerala Healthcare Service Persons And Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention Of Violence And Damage To Property) Amendment Act, 2023’: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Medical Students in South Kerala

Awareness And Knowledge Of ‘The Kerala Healthcare Service Persons And Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention Of Violence And Damage To Property) Amendment Act, 2023’: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Medical Students in South Kerala | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Awareness And Knowledge Of ‘The Kerala Healthcare Service Persons And Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention Of Violence And Damage To Property) Amendment Act, 2023’: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Medical Students in South Kerala Anita Ann Thomas, Anna Mohanlal, Anu Elizabeth, Harishankar A, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6281056/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Introduction Increasing episodes of violence against healthcare workers (HCWs) are of growing global concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports 8% - 38% of HCWs having experienced physical violence at least once in their lifetime. Healthcare settings are recognized as high-risk workplaces by the WHO. In response to widespread protests against the murder of a house surgeon at the Kottarakara Taluk Hospital in 2023, the government of Kerala strengthened the 2012 legislation with the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons, and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property Amendment Act, 2023. This study aimed to assess the awareness and knowledge about the Prevention of Violence and Damage Amendment Act, 2023 among medical students and evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on them. Methodology Baseline awareness and knowledge about the Act was assessed using a validated online questionnaire followed by an awareness session highlighting key provisions, legal implications, and protective measures under the Act. (Intervention). Post-class knowledge and awareness were reassessed. Results After the intervention, 87.3% of participants demonstrated good knowledge, 6.9% moderate and 5.7% poor knowledge of the Act. Conclusion The study highlights the effectiveness of awareness classes as educational interventions in improving medical students’ knowledge of legislation that directly impacts them. Such initiatives prepare them to address future workplace challenges and foster safer healthcare environments. Workplace Violence Medical Students Healthcare Workers Healthcare facilities Healthcare Legislation & Jurisprudence Knowledge Attitudes and Practice Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files QuestionnaireHCWviolence.docx INFORMEDCONSENTFORMandEthicsapproval.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6281056","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":458536515,"identity":"c762a97c-482e-4355-957a-a8c859378f53","order_by":0,"name":"Anita Ann Thomas","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences \u0026 Research Centre","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anita","middleName":"Ann","lastName":"Thomas","suffix":""},{"id":458536517,"identity":"4a17d6b0-02bf-4f82-816b-74cf3506f7e3","order_by":1,"name":"Anna Mohanlal","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pushpagiri Institute of 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Cross-Sectional Study Among Medical Students in South Kerala","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Workplace Violence, Medical Students, Healthcare Workers, Healthcare facilities, Healthcare Legislation \u0026 Jurisprudence, Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6281056/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6281056/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIntroduction\u003c/strong\u003e Increasing episodes of violence against healthcare workers (HCWs) are of growing global concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports 8% - 38% of HCWs having experienced physical violence at least once in their lifetime. Healthcare settings are recognized as high-risk workplaces by the WHO.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn response to widespread protests against the murder of a house surgeon at the Kottarakara Taluk Hospital in 2023, the government of Kerala strengthened the 2012 legislation with the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons, and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property Amendment Act, 2023. This study aimed to assess the awareness and knowledge about the Prevention of Violence and Damage Amendment Act, 2023 among medical students and evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on them.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMethodology\u003c/strong\u003e Baseline awareness and knowledge about the Act was assessed using a validated online questionnaire followed by an awareness session highlighting key provisions, legal implications, and protective measures under the Act. (Intervention). 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