Lateral Violence In Nursing

The financial cost of losing a single nurse has been calculated as equal to double the annual salary of a single nurse. Various studies reveal that each hospital in America is losing almost $300, 000 per year because of nurse turn-over. Nurse turn-over can negatively impact the health care system in many ways such as poor quality of patient care, increased medication error, hospital acquired infection, prolonged patient stay at hospital, and increased staffing cost. Many factors contribute to nurse turn-over such as workload, absence of career opportunities, poor work recognition, and lack of communication with management about issues (Hunt, 2009).

Nurses spend most of their thirteen hour shifts being pulled in multiple directions. After days and days of this happening, a nurse can begin to feel worn down and stressed. There are many nurses that find it in them to stick with it, while others feel overwhelmed and burned out and end up quitting. Nurses already have a stressful job but when you add bullying into the mix, it just becomes unbearable for some (Brown, 2010).

Introduction Violence within the workplace-affecting employees which reflects on the performance of the organization. Nursing is among many of professions that work in a very high-stress environment posing a high risk for potential of workplace violence. Workplace among the intraprofessional team can be detrimental to patient safety posing a great risk to poor patient outcomes. “Horizontal violence threatens patient safety by damaging workplace relationships and impeding communication among nurses” (IN TEXT CITATION, pg. ). Horizontal violence in nursing is any hostile, aggressive, and harmful behaviour by a nurse or group of nurses toward a co-worker via attitudes, actions, words and/or other behaviours (IN TEXT NURSES PERCEPTION OF HORIZONTAL VIOLENCE).

In today’s world violence can be expected anywhere at any time. This includes what was considered at one time a low risk area, the medical facility. Today the incidence of violence is increasing. There are two types of violence the first is lateral violence or aggression which is amongst hospital or medical personal. The other is external factors consisting of patients or visitors instituting violence or aggression among themselves or against healthcare workers. This is known as a code grey in my facility and all male staff not currently engaged in patient care are supposed to respond.

Blair, P. L. (2013). Lateral violence in nursing. Journal of Emergency Nursing: JEN: Official Publication of The Emergency Department Nurses Association, 39(5), e75-e78. doi:10.1016/j.jen.2011.12.006 http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=9&sid=29b3391a-a1ad-47a3-bf83-77ea9161ad70%40sessionmgr101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=22245396&db=cmedm

Bullying is the use of force, superior strength, threats, abusive language, or intimidation by a person in a higher level of authority on another in a lower position, while lateral violence refers to acts that occur between colleagues. Lateral violence in nursing involves nurses overtly or covertly directing their inward dissatisfaction toward each other, towards themselves, and towards less powerful colleagues. M Griffin - Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 2004

Nursing is a profession that is based on the principles of caring and ethics. For years nursing has been continuously ranked as the most trusted profession (Riffkin, 2014). Nurses advocate for patients even if it means standing up to doctors and hospital administrators. Shockingly, for a job rooted in compassion, horizontal violence is a devastatingly common occurrence in the nursing profession. Horizontal violence, or workplace bullying, is defined as repeated incidences of aggressive behaviour intended to intimidate, degrade, humiliate, and offend a person or group of people (Ontario Nursing Association, 2012). Nurse-to-nurse aggression can range from yelling, withholding information, refusing to help, undermining a fellow nurse 's work ability and threatening unnecessary disciplinary action (Rocker, 2008). In Canada, 50% of nurses reported being verbally abused and 46% experienced hostility or conflict with colleagues (Statistics Canada, 2005). While many nurses are victims of bullying, many do not report the incidents and develop poor coping strategies. When a nurse does not report a bully, they are putting their mental health at risk. Nursing programs must implement educational programs for student nurses. They rely on safe clinical placements to develop and practice essential nursing skills. However, the toxic environment that bullying creates jeopardizes not only their education but their mental health as well, spurring on ramifications that last a lifetime.

Excellent discussion on workplace violence in the health care setting. When this writer finished nursing school approximately nine years ago, the thought of being assaulted or abused by the patient or family member did not cross this writer mind. Most people think of nurses as being the most nurturing, caring indivdiual, whom assist the patient with restoring their health. Society has shifted in a direction within the current health care industry and there is not a level of respect being demonstrated towards the health care professional. This can create a barrier with building a therapeutic and effective nurse to patient relationship. When this wall has been established due to workplace violence resulting from the patient and family,

Nurses continually strive to bring holistic, efficient, and safe care to their patients. However, if the safety and well-being of the nurses are threatened or compromised, it is difficult for nurses to work effectively and efficiently. Therefore, the position of the American Nurses Association (ANA) advocate that every nursing professional have the right to work in a healthy work environment free of abusive behavior such as bullying, hostility, lateral abuse and violence, sexual harassment, intimidation, abuse of authority and position and reprisal for speaking out against abuses (American Nurses Association, 2012).

Despite the rapidly expanding volume of literature on lateral violence in the nursing profession, it is apparent that those behaviours still occur (Croft & Cash, 2012; Roberts, 2015). Lateral violence is a systemic problem that still persists among our nursing professionals despite previous attempts to address it. Lateral violence causes serious negative outcomes for nurses, their patients, and health care organizations (Brunt, 2011; Johnson & Rea, 2009) and needs to be efficiently addressed. The purpose of this article is to generate an understanding of horizontal violence in nursing and explore the negative outcomes so that effective strategies can be found to finally address this problem. This literature review will be of interest to leaders,

Lateral violence is described as a non-physical act occurring between individuals and is intended to hurt another person emotionally. It may be a secretive or noticeable act of verbal or non-verbal hostility. The actions can extend exterior to the place of work and can be perpetrated individually or in cyberspace. Within the nursing community, lateral violence is described as aggression behaviors amongst nurses. The most common forms of lateral violence in the nursing practice include: undermining actions, withholding information, interference, backbiting, incrimination, backstabbing, broken confidences, and failure to respect the privacy of another person. Workplace conflict leads to adverse impacts on registered nurses, patients, other

Nurse-to-nurse lateral violence or incivility profoundly raises occupational stress with physical, psychological, and organizational consequence(Embree, White, & Bruner, 2013). I will discuss issues of incivility, importance to nursing, a scenario, creating a healthful environment, my specialty track, and my conclusion.

I experienced lateral violence as a new nurse about twenty years ago. This happened when I joined for the specialization in ICU training in a hospital, out of my state in my country. The nurses who were working in the ICU at that time used to show hostility in the form of non-cooperation and teasing. Many times, they had refused to help by giving information or supporting in the clinical area. I had been supportive and cooperative the whole time. It was hard to function in such an environment. I was new to the institution and even to the nursing field itself, at that time. I was ignorant about the availability of any

Violence towards nurses can often be done by aggression or physical assault, threatening behaviors and behavior that causes emotional or physical harm. The violence will not stop, but it could be reduced by passing laws and more security programs towards the nurses. Reglaments in hospitals are now used to protect the life of nurses that are affected by patients and their families during the workplace. In the nursing field there is no perfect way to handle violence because there will always be one angry patient. Nursing is possibly the hardest workplace to handle violence. Patients will always refuse to get

Workplace violence, is an issue often encountered but rarely discussed or focused on. Workplace violence includes physical assault, verbal or written threats, harassment and homicide (“Workplace Violence, “2017). Per ANA website, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) does not require organizations to have prevention programs in regards to workplace violence. From experience, we know how fast situations can escalate and it is important that we have a governing body that protects us. Nurses are more likely not to report due to fear of unemployment or that nothing will happen after reporting (Kvas & Seljak, 2014). A bill passed in December 2015, gave protection for healthcare personnel injured while providing care and their assailants could be charged with a felony offense. (“Association of perioperative…,” 2015). Federally, there is not much direction or leadership in regards to workplace violence outside of hospitals. There are several organizations involving nurses in leadership, emergency medicine and perioperative nursing but not many organizations associated with community health nursing. It is important to look on state and local levels to see where we can assist in ensuring nurses in organizations other than hospitals feel safe while working. I believe it is important to work together to achieve a common goal geared towards the improvement of the nursing profession.