Introduction Violence in the workplace has been around for centuries. Everything from verbal abuse and harassments to physical abuse and murders have been known to happen in a business. During the 1980’s several violent attacks happened in the Postal Service, public awareness of workplace violence began in August of 1986 when a postal employee shot and killed fourteen people before killing himself. Prior to these killings, violence in the workplace was only referred to as getting injured on the job. With the attention of the media, workplace violence now has its own specific category of crime. It is tracked and studied by the FBI, OSHA and other state run organizations. As attention is always growing with workplace violence, …show more content…
According to OSHA, workplace violence falls into four different categories; criminal intent, customer/client, worker-on-worker, and personal relationships. Criminal intent is when an individual with no relationship to the business commits a crime such as a robbery, shoplifting or trespassing. Customer/Client violence is when a person has a type of relationship with the business, such as client, inmate, student etc. When this type of violence occurs, you can expect the customer to dissatisfied with their product or the way they are being treated. They may be aggressive towards the employee or security officials trying to defuse the situation. Worker-on-worker violence occurs when one employee attacks or abuses another employee. Worker-on-worker fatalities occur accounted for approximately fifteen percent of all workplace violence in 2015 (Safety.blr). This type of violence is when one worker attacks another employee, typically over an argument between each other. The last category for workplace violence is personal relationships. This is when an individual has a personal relationship with the employee but has no connection with the business. This category includes victims of domestic violence who are assaulted or threatened while at work and accounted for about seven percent of all homicides in 2014
There is no standard ‘profile’ of a person who commits workplace violence, and by no means is someone a threat just because they display one of these traits. Employees that exhibit many of these traits, and with increasing intensity, may be a danger and may need some help. Being able to identify these signs and warning signals, and reporting it to management timely can help prevent a workplace violence incident.
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.
Workplace violence includes any incident in which an employee is threatened, intimated, verbally or physically attacked, harassed, injured or killed. Workplace, or occupational violence, as it is sometimes referred to, has and can occur in almost all types of settings, from large to small, private to public and rural to urban. Therefore, there is a demonstrated need for firms of all types, sizes and in all locations to become aware of the seriousness of
Workplace violence is the main issue in the United States expressed influencing a large number of American consistently. Working environment violence is any demonstration or danger of physical savagery, provocation, terrorizing, or other undermining problematic conduct that happens at the work site. It ranges from dangers and verbal mishandle to physical ambushes and even murder. It can influence and include workers, customers, nurses, patient, clients, and guests. Workplace violence can be discovered anywhere in every field we may accept the fact that it can happen in our workplace too, but the fewer people speak which is encouraging these criminals to prepare of making more atrocity. The occupational safety and health organization (OSHA) have created rules and suggestions to decrease laborer presentation to this deplorable scourge but still many people are being victimized their hands are tied up mouths are taped out to face the reality of what they are living through (OSHA 2015). OSHA’s paradigm incorporates the following elements: management commitment and employee involvement, hazard analysis or assessment, hazard controls, employee training, and recordkeeping and evaluation (McPhaul, London, & Lipscomb, 2013). As mentioned, these elements are basic guidelines in constructing a program, but more specific measures are needed to address specific precursors that contribute to the occurrence of violence and bullying. This would assist in forming the best strategies to remedy workplace violence and incivility.
First, it is imperative to understand what horizontal violence, lateral violence, or workplace bullying is to become fully aware of this issue’s extent; these terms are often used interchangeably. A commonality among sources is the description of horizontal violence as “acts of aggression” committed by one coworker against another (Becher & Visovsky, 2012, p. 210). Astonishingly, the range of what is considered horizontal violence is vast, and these aggressive acts are revealed in several forms. Some violence is unmistakable such as threatening, name calling, criticizing, or public humiliation; however, other acts are less obvious such as withholding information, eye rolling, silence, and isolation (Becher & Visovsky, 2012). Still, other violence includes “scapegoating
The goal of this research was to determine the impact that the implementation of a workplace violence presentation program had on violence rates in the VA health care system. Over the years, the Veterans Health Care Administration has implemented many strategies to make work environments safer, including a workplace violence prevention program. Using their previously set-up reporting system, researchers were able to determine the number of assaults in the past 6 fiscal years (2003-2009) as well as the current rates of assault in their facilities. Using an evaluation team of three members from each
Workplace violence occurs due to an interpersonal conflict between two or more people that results from differences in their needs, ideas, goals, interests, or values (Marquis and Huston, 2015). Workplace violence is not limited to physical violence; it also includes negative activities such as bulling, verbal abuse, pranking, negative insinuations, gossiping, insubordination, and withholding information (Latham, Ringl, & Hogan, 2013). Research suggests that more than 80 % nurses experience workplace violence at some point in their working careers (Frederick, 2014). New graduate nurses are especially susceptible to workplace violence because they are usually unprepared to deal with it, and they are more likely to leave the profession due to workplace violence (Frederick, 2014). Townsend (2012) reported that 70 % of nurses, who experienced bullying at the workplace, leave their jobs, and 60 % of new graduate nurses quit their jobs within first six months of being bullied (as cited in Marquis & Huston, 2015). Workplace violence is an important leadership issue to address because it affects turnover rates, productivity, patient safety, and overall quality of care (Marquis & Huston, 2015).
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.
Park, M., Cho, S., & Hong, H. (2014). Prevalence and perpetrators of workplace violence by nursing unit and the relationship between violence and the perceived work environment. Journal of nursing scholarship, 47(1), 87-95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12112
The acts violence can be overt or covert verbal and or non-verbal aggression. Such act includes behaviors like gossiping, withholding information and ostracism, which are referred to relational aggression or psychological abuse. These behaviors can also extend outside the workplace and can occur in person or in cyberspace (Walrafen, Brewer, & Mulvenon, 2012). According to King-Jones (2011), the origin of lateral violence is related to the oppressed group model that supported that nurses are powerless and oppressed group. Hence, they react by over-powering other Violence in the workplace is a national concern that affects all profession, especially the nursing profession. It is a known fact that violence brings unsafe environment that has detrimental effects to the individual nurses as well and their patients (Chipps, stelmaschuk, Albert, Bernhard, & Holloman,
Significantly, workplace violence has continued to escalate over the last few years. In fact, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) stated that homicide related to workplace violence is the fourth leading cause of fatal occupational injuries in the United States (Safety, n.d.). Unfortunately, workplace violence is a major concern for employees and employers across the county. Workplace violence can be the end result of affection gone bad or pure resentment and rage.
Employees are responsible for informing supervisors or management of any threats that they have observed, received, violent behavior, or told about from another employee. Employees will be required to fill out the necessary reports in regards to any violent threats or behaviors. The employer will create and implement a confidentially process and procedures for employee’s safety when reporting such incidents. The employer will investigate and take swift actions when an employee is suspected of possibly becoming
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), from 2005-2014, there has been an increase in the rate of workplace violence in private-sector hospitals by 110% (2016). Workplace violence, which consists of physical and psychological abuse during work or on duty, has been an increasing problem in the healthcare industry. Workplace violence occurs in all types of healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes and includes violence from patients, visitors, invaders, and coworkers. Although many states, including California, have laws preventing workplace violence, there is no federal law that enforces workplace violence protections. The effects and causes of workplace violence in the healthcare setting is explored, as
Workplace violence is a serious and growing issue in society. Employers need to develop intervention strategies to decrease reduce violence in the workplace. Also, employers and employees need to be aware of the signs when people exhibit behaviors that can lead to workplace violence. As a society, the issue needs to be acknowledged of the reality and work together for creating a solution. Lastly, employers and employees must not live in fear of addressing concerns if they see the potential for workplace violence or report when they witness or experience workplace violence.
Workplace violence takes numerous structures. Corporate and open concern tends to concentrate on pictures of business related crimes, which frequently go with abusive behavior at home circumstances. Different types of workplace violence, for example, grumblings of tormenting and inappropriate behavior, are subtler, yet no less mentally damaging to laborers ' mental and physical wellbeing. (Mathis, John & Sean, 2014). Workplace violence can happen anyplace at any time. Workers in a few commercial enterprises, for example, healthcare or retail foundations, are more probable than others to experience roughness at work.