Civility and Lateral Violence in Nursing
Lateral violence is a devastating phenomenon in the nursing workplace. It is also known as ‘horizontal violence’ or ‘workplace bullying (Coursey, Rodriguez, Dieckmann, & Austin, 2013). In this evidenced-based paper there will be information provided to figure out why there is lateral violence in the workplace and how to incorporate civility.
Lateral violence refers to acts that occur between colleagues, where bullying is described as acts perpetrated by one in a higher level of authority and occur over time (Dellasega, 2009). The acts can be covert or overt acts of verbal or non-verbal aggression. Relational aggression is a type of bullying typified by psychological abuse. Behaviors include gossiping, withholding information and ostracism. Behaviors can extend outside the workplace and can occur in person or in cyberspace (Dellasega, 2009). Civility is behavior that shows respect toward another person, makes that person feel valued, and contributes to mutual respect, effective communication, and team collaboration. Forni (2002) describes civility as a form of benevolent awareness (respect, restraint, and consideration) in his book Choosing Civility: The 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct. Civility does not depend on if an employee likes the other, but respect for one another.
Lateral violence is a widespread issue in the nursing profession. An overview of relevant literature indicates that incivility, bullying, and workplace violence
Horizontal violence is a negative phenomenon that is increasing significantly in the hospital setting. It is defined as bullying, verbal and physical aggression that occurs to employees in the workforce. Horizontal violence has harmful effects on nurses as it lowers their self- esteem, and makes them feel as if they have no power in their career. This phenomenon also negatively impacts patient centered care and safety as nurses are more vulnerable to making medication errors and careless mistakes. Horizontal violence can be decreased in the hospital setting if interventions are implemented by members of the health care team. Education is key to decrease the occurrence of horizontal violence as it enables health care workers to
Bullying can produce and maintain a poisonous work environment. Nurses who bully can wear down the job satisfaction of their co workers which can result in a loss of productivity and increased absences in the workplace (Stokowski, 2010). Victims of bullying often have a feeling of impending doom and dread when they think about their upcoming work days. Each time the bullying reoccurs, the victims usually
The purpose of this integration paper is to educate about lateral violence in the professional setting, more specifically within the nursing profession. Lateral violence is defined as “profound and pervasive source of occupational stress with physical and psychological and organizational consequences.” (Cervalolo, D). Types of lateral violence include rude comments, verbal attacks, condescending language, sexual misconduct, lack of collaboration, professionally attacking a person integrity and reputation, blaming others for your own mistakes in front of others and family members of the patient, withholding important information and other non-professional behaviors.
Chris Pontus states that Lateral violence, bullying and workplace harassment often are one and the same. Defining the different aspects of lateral violence Pontus explains that there are three categories which make up lateral violence: harassment, discrimination and bullying. Harassment is a form of unwelcome conduct ranging from unwanted comments to physical violence (Pontus, 2011). Discrimination includes a person being treated inversely and less favorably based on gender, race, sexual orientation or capability. Finally, workplace bullying is categorized as many events of unwarrantable actions of an individual or group geared to a person or group over a long period. To expand, Pontus explains that bullying behaviors are persistent, offensive,
In 2009 unspecified electronic survey was conducted with factors such as type, frequency, perpetrators, and professional/personal concerns on bullying identified (Quine, 2001). The results revealed that out of 330 RN respondents, 72% reported positive to bullying at various occasions in line of their career. Of this segment, clear hostility seemed most frequent in surgical/medical, operational rooms, emergency, obstetrical areas of care and adolescent residential behavioral/ mental health units. The main culprits to these act are non-other than; charge nurses, senior nurses, physicians and nurse managers. This is impartial research among others that have been
In a profession where caring is the epicenter of the job, it is disconcerting to see a high occurrence of bullying in the nursing environment. Lateral bullying and lateral violence are terms used to describe bullying, uncivil behavior, disrespect, social devaluing, peer control and verbal, physical and emotional abuse occurring between nurses and or colleagues (Ceravolo et al., 2012). Abusive behaviors from a superior are considered vertical or hierarchal violence and are commonly seen when the superior attempts to control or bully the nurse using their superiority, often leaving the nurse feeling defenseless due to an imbalance in power and control (Broome & Williams-Evans, 2011). Some examples of bullying include harsh criticism, unfairly blaming others for mistakes, and withholding patient care information (Simons et al., 2011). In a recent study measuring workplace bullying, Simons, Stark and DeMarco (2011) found that the most common behaviors those feeling bullied experienced included being assigned workloads they felt were unmanageable, and being ignored or excluded by their peers.
The lateral violence comes in many forms and in many ways, such as abuse in the workplace that occur between colleagues, it can be verbal or nonverbal aggression, intimidation, bullying, harassment, discrimination, stereotyping, gossiping, criticism, and other related mistreatment behavior at work. Institutional lateral violence also happens between manager and subordinate where they can use their higher position to perpetrate assault to their subordinate such as acts of lasciviousness, shouting, anger outburst, forced overtime request, giving work beyond the job description, work overload, over blaming or insulting a staff and more. All these happen occasionally because of the lack of respect in the workplace and it comes without notice, especially in healthcare practices where the nature of work is tough and decision making must be made immediately.
Behaviors of horizontal violence include name calling, spreading rumors and making threats to someone (Echevarria, 2013). These activities may cause mayhem for the victim of horizontal violence and can drastically reduce patient safety. When a nurse is being bullied through horizontal violence, a patients’ safety is put at a great risk of being affected. Effective communication is necessary for nurses to provide safe and reliable care.
Even though workplace politics exists in every profession, the effects of horizontal violence, or bullying, in nursing is a costly behavior. Nurses feel devalued in the workplace and experience psychological effects. Patients are likely to experience less favorable outcomes, and
Hatred in the work environment breeds various issues for workers. For example, representatives working in a negative situation will probably discover issues with confidence and low profitability. Also, a negative work environment can prompt high representative turnover rates. To build energy in the work environment, workers must to make a positive workplace and do what it takes to maintain and cultivate this culture. According to Yoder-wise (2011), “the definition of violence includes overt and covert behavior ranging from offensive threatening language to homicide” (Yoder Wise, 2011, p.498). Violence can be noted as the general term that represents lateral aggression,
Acts of incivility such as bullying, lateral violence, or harassment in the work place negatively affects nursing performance, mental health, and retention within an organization or even the profession of nursing (Warrner, 2016). A policy in the American Nurses Association (ANA) proclaims that the nursing profession will not tolerate violence of any kind from any source (ANA, 2015b). The Code of Ethics for Nurses by ANA requires nurses to promote an ethical environment and culture of civility with an emphasis on treating all parties with dignity and respect (ANA, 2015a). A study conducted in a rural Kentucky hospital’s medical- surgical units concluded that educational trainings in itself did not reduce the frequency of experiencing incivility in their unit (Armstrong, 2017). Nevertheless, nurses in the study reported that educational trainings increased their ability to recognize and appropriately respond to workplace incivility (Armstrong, 2017).
Horizontal violence is a hidden pattern of individual behavior in controlling other individual that risk health and safety (Hinchberger, 2009). According to Roche, Duffield and Catling-Paull, violence can be describe as emotional abuse, threat, or actual violence in any health care setting. Although the definition varies according to situations and practice settings, there is agreement that workplace violence has a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of nurses and the delivery of quality nursing care (Hinchberger, 2009). Violence mostly occur in any health care setting, However, it mostly occur in emergency department, waiting room, psychiatric ward and geriatric unit on which people involved psychological situations.
Bullying is a serious problem in the nursing profession, it decreases nurse productivity, creates adverse patient outcomes, and overall lack of job satisfaction. It can be seen anywhere in the nursing profession. Bullying includes emotional and physical abuse as well as, putting others down, intimidation, spreading rumors, etc. “Research findings suggest that bullying frequently occurs among RNs [6] to the extent that up to 40% of nurses report an intent to leave because of it [7]; this is significant especially for new nurses, in that new RNs reported being bullied at work which resulted in 30% of
Civility in the work place, or the lack thereof, has been identified as a growing problem within many professions in today’s society. Often referred to as lateral violence, this occurrence is no exception in the nursing profession. It is also known as ‘horizontal violence’ or ‘workplace bullying (Coursey, Rodriguez, Dieckmann, & Austin, 2013). In this evidenced-based paper, information will be provided in an effort to identify causes of lateral violence in the workplace and how to encourage civility.
Several models and concepts arose in preventative measures to workplace violence in nursing. One conceptual model, according to Covert Crime at Work, is “a conceptual model derived from 370 surveys show working conditions conducive to bullying, thus helping to identify risks early and to prevent unhealthy environments from developing.” After recognition of these research and studies, organizations such as Occupations Safety and Hazard Association, American Nurses Associations, and etc, have implemented guidelines to prevent workplace violence in nursing.