Health care workers take kickboxing classes

İZMİR

As the problem of violence against health care workers in Turkey remains persistent, a group of health workers in the Aegean province of İzmir started learning kickboxing to protect themselves from being exposed to violence and workplace assault.

Berkan Günerli, the trainer of the Turkish Kickboxing National Team, said interest among health professionals in kickboxing increased especially during the pandemic, when incidents of physical assaults were seen frequently at health centers.

Expressing that kickboxing is the most active sports branch in martial arts, and that is why it is preferred especially by doctors, Günerli said: “Healthcare professionals should be able to defend themselves before the events come to different dimensions.”

Günerli’s group includes family physicians, pharmacists, emergency medicine specialists and medical faculty students.

The trend of violence made headlines again a couple of months ago when a group of health care workers at Samatya Hospital in Istanbul had to barricade themselves in a surgery room against a patient’s relative who tried to force their way inside.