Relational Harassment In Nurses: A Case Study

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

Typically, when someone thinks of a bully, childhood memories of scuffles on the playground come to mind. Bullies are not usually people that are associated with adult life. However, nursing has changed this stereotypical view. For many nurses, bullying may be as great a threat every day at work as it was when they were in grade school. This threat is because of what is termed as horizontal or lateral violence in the workplace, and it is a surprisingly, prominent issue in the field of nursing. Furthermore, horizontal violence is a detrimental problem in nursing due to its damaging and negative effects on nurses and the nursing profession as a whole.

Nurse bullying is not limited to the new nurses being the victims. Bully behavior is a learned process and a choice. A new nurse might observe and embrace the bully behavior in hopes to fit in a little bit more (Rocker, 2008). Cliques may form on nursing floors which are the vehicles for nurse bullying. Cliques help a bully hide and gain support. It seems easier for people to join the group instead of fighting against it (Rocker, 2008). This is why workplace bullying is a growing statistic.

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

To the public eye, hospitals and nurses are there for them and their work environment seems like one that would promote growth in the work place, but the public doesn’t see what happens behind the curtain at these hospitals. Bullying can be in every company, but the public never really sees it happening just the employees that work there. The definition of bullying according to Terri Townsend, who wrote “Break the bullying cycle”, states that “[b]ullying is defined as repeated, offensive, abusive, intimidating, or insulting behaviors; abuse of power; or unfair sanctions that make recipients feel humiliated, vulnerable, or threatened, thus creating stress and undermining their self-confidence” (Townsend). This bullying greatly affects the employees and makes the work place environment suffer. By using Bruno Bettelheim’s essay “The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank”, as a reference to compare why these employees put up with what happens to them at work. A very common everyday example where work place bullying/dehumanization happens would be the employees of McDonalds in Barbara Garson’s essay “McDonald’s – We Do It All for You”, which shows what these employees put up with on a daily basis. There is a huge difference in work places from that of a hospital to that of McDonald’s, but the question is why do these employees put up with the abuse? Hospital employees are also scared to stand up to their supervisors, because they don’t want to face the possible consequences that would

There has been much research done on the prevalence of bullying in the nursing workplace. Smith, Andrusyszyn, and Laschinger (2010) report that up to 90% of nurses encounter bullying in the workplace. Because this has become so commonplace within the nursing environment, many nurses turn a blind eye, or passively participate in bullying, accepting it as a normal occurrence in the workplace

Literature that investigates the rates of lateral violence has confirmed that LV has been and currently still is prevalent in the nursing profession. A survey taken during the Upstate AHEC Lateral Violence Among Nurses Project by Jacobs and Kyzer (2010) revealed that 93 percent of nurses have witnessed lateral violence among coworkers, while 85 percent have been a victim of lateral violence. As can be seen by these percentages, lateral violence in nursing is very real and affects many of those who are identified as a nurse. Although these statistics are informative, it is critical to remember that they do not capture all incidents of LV in the nursing profession. Since these statistics come from reported incidents of lateral violence in nursing, there may be additional incidents that were not reported. Therefore, the rates of

Key words and terminology in the article search included hostility, nursing turnover, nursing attrition, nurse aggression, bullying, and nurse hostility. Specific key words that were used to narrow down the search included incivility, nurse turnover, lateral violence (LV), horizontal violence (HV), disruptive behavior (DB), and horizontal hostility (HH). The publication date range was adjusted to 2012 through 2017. The following literature review probes into the research of incivility to explore the connection with nursing turnover and patient care.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“The first step in teaching nurses how to decrease bullying by others is to help them understand what to do and what not to do when confronted by a bully” (Rocker, 2008, Education, para. 13). Nurses need to be aware of how to recognize horizontal violence, and how to be able to stop it. Furthermore, Baltimore (2006) explained that nurses need to try and resist the temptation of participating in gossip which could ultimately result in people losing respect for nurses (p. 35). Nurses also need to be respectful and value differences among other nurses. Each nurse is unique and may have different ways of implementing his/her type of care. Therefore, it is crucial that nurses respect these differences (Rocker, 2008, Policy, para. 14). If nurses are able to be consciously aware of these small things, it can make a huge difference on how they treat other coworkers, and how others view them. Not only is it important for nurses to understand what horizontal violence is, but managers of hospitals need to be well educated of this as well. Brunt (2011) stated that managers have a key role in preventing and altering horizontal violence in the workforce. It is important that managers create an environment where staff members feel comfortable coming to the managers with concerns. Managers need to be educated about how to deal with the negativity of horizontal violence (p. 7). Managers can improve relationships, trust, and productivity and reduce tension by

Bullying is a serious issue that frequently happens during a nursing shortage. Since hospitals need to recruit new nurses when their nurses left. Therefore, new nurses are usually the target of bullying by the old nurses. Accordingly, bullying can cause even more burdens to the challenges that the novice nurses or new nurses have to face on the daily basis. As the findings in this research, the bullying acts may be on personal attack, competence or work tasks. And the consequences of this issue can cause diminished self-esteem, distress that lead to physical and emotional damages for these nurses; that is why more nurses want to leave their job because of job dissatisfaction, or else, they will put their patients' safety in danger (Olender,