The Causes And Effects Of Horizontal Violence In Nursing

Effectively, interpersonal conflict was found to be one of the major sources of stress for nurses. Fudge (2006) affirmed overt and covert types of horizontal and vertical violence. Overt violence is obvious for everyone to see whereas covert is the complete opposite while still encouraging cruelty to one’s peers (Fudge, 2006). However, partnerships within health care settings may be declining due to the fact that some nurses may feel overworked and stressed. Jacoba Leiper (2005) stated that nurses are under pressure to complete their workload during their shift. Thus the nurse who’s having trouble completing her work on time, may skip breaks or stay late to avoid the ire of those on later shifts. But if she doesn’t take these steps and regularly fails to complete her tasks during her shifts, she may irritate her peers or take her anger out on her peers as well. Thus, the

Safety is an important factor and is a high priority in healthcare. Kelly, Fenwick, Brekke, and Novaco (2015) shared that workplace violence impairs the staff perceptions of safety. However, both patients and staff are affected by workplace violence in many ways, from physical to emotional aspects. There are many reasons why violence occurs, that will be explained later in this paper. The purpose of this paper is to explain the reason and importance of the chosen phenomenon of interest. Moreover, primary and opposing philosophic viewpoints will be discussed, as well as ways of recognizing and utilizing them in nursing. The ways of knowing patterns in nursing and the utilization of these patterns will be explained, pertaining to nursing care.

In a profession where others' health and well-being are priority, there leaves room for neglect of those who are delegated to care for these people. As a professional nurse, there are many obstacles that arise and affect the care provided to a patient, as well as the livelihood of the nurse. The current deteriorating and unsafe staffing conditions in hospitals and other institutions prompts workplace advocacy as the universally appropriate concept for maintaining professional nursing practice.  Common

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

What is instead increasing at an alarming rate in hospitals is violence perpetrated by patients themselves – typically, mental health patients or the elderly.

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.

nursing literature has covered the issue and effects of lateral violence (Patterson, 2007). Moreover, in response to researchers’ exploration of the origins of horizontal violence, theories have been developed. Freire’s theory of oppression stems from nursing’s history during the early 1900s (Purpora, 2012). Historically, nurses have functioned in a hierarchical environment where physicians dominated nurses, and nursing work was devalued compared to physicians’ work (Purpora, 2012). From this perspective, nurses feel oppressed and handle their irritation by averting it toward others, thus creating horizontal violence (Purpora, 2012). Furthermore, this theory’s relevance has been proven in current nursing through a research study finding a positive connection between horizontal violence and nurses’ beliefs and feelings of oppression (Purpora, 2012).

The physician began screaming and cursing in the middle of the unit. He questioned her education by stating, “where did you go to medical school”. The nurse became really upset and began to cry. The behavior exhibited by the physician iss a textbook example of horizontal violence.

money in recruitment and education. Moreover, bullying also affects continuity of care with patients and may result in sentinel events as well as legal action against the clinician, and facility

Significance: Because nursing is the largest health care profession and nurses provide most of the patient care, and as an acute nurse, I can relate to how unsafe nurse staffing/low nurse-to-patient ratios can have negative impact on patient satisfaction and outcome, can lead to medical and/or medication errors and nurse burnout. It can also bring about anxiety and frustration, which can also clouds the nurses’ critical thinking. Most patients might not know the work load on a particular nurse and can assume that her nurse is just not efficient. Doctors also can become very impatient with their nurses because orders are not being followed through that can delay treatments to their patients. There is also delays in attending to call lights resulting in very unhappy patients who needed help.

Implementation of this intervention in other rural nursing settings may assist nurses in cultivating greater confidence in their ability to recognize and respond to workplace incivility (Armstrong,

Workplace violence commonly occurs between nurses, between nurses and patient, between nurses and families, or even between nurses and physician. Violence from relatives and friends of patients may occur as a result of frustration with a perceived lack of care or communication (Roche et.al. 2010). According to Woefle and McCaffrey there two consequences of violence (physical and psychological) for nurses and organization. Physical by the mean nurses can possibly experience weight loss, cardiac palpitation, stress, hypertension and irritable bowel syndrome. Psychological by the means of being mentally drain of nurses that can cause danger in giving a quality care.

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.

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.

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).