Violence In The Workplace Essay

This is violence committed by an aggressor who either gets administrations from or is under the custodial supervision of the influenced work environment or the casualty. The aggressors can be present or previous clients or customers, for example, travelers, patients, understudies, prisoners, criminal suspects or detainees. The specialists regularly give direct administrations to general society, for instance, civil transport or railroad drivers, human services and social administration suppliers, instructors and deals work force. Law requirement staff is additionally in danger of strike from the people over whom they apply custodial supervision. (Oliver, 2015).

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.

Part biography, part social view, a very thoughtful look into inner-city violence and the rules surrounding it. This book describes how his personal history with violence influenced his work with youth and the programs that he has started to support youth. Geoffrey Canada describes the progression of violence that had happened in his lifetime. He also points out that there is a disturbing difference between what the streets were like in the 1960s compared to those of today.

ARTICLE 7: “Assault rates and implementation of a workplace violence prevention program in the Veterans Health Care Administration” (7)

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.

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).

Workplace violence (WPV) has been an increasing problem for many years, but it is hitting the healthcare profession hardest.(1) A crime survey done in 2014 by the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) found that violent crimes in the US healthcare system increased by 25% from 2012 to 2013.(2) Nearly 24,000 assaults in the work environment occur every year, with nearly 70-75% occurring to healthcare providers alone.(3, 4) Due to this increased risk of assault while working, healthcare workers are nearly 4 times as likely to need time off of work due to an injury caused by workplace violence than any other cause (i.e. illness, family leave, etc).(3) In a 2001 document from the United States Bureau of Justice, it was reported that 1.62% of physicians were assaulted (16.2 assaults per 1,000), 2.19% of nurses were assaulted (21.9 assaults per 1,000 nurses), and 0.85% of other healthcare workers (with varying job titles) were assaulted (8.5 assaults per 1,000 employees).(5) In 2011, the United States Bureau of Justice measured the workplace violence rate for nurses to be 3.9% (3.9 assaults per 1,000), almost doubling the numbers from 2001 in just 10 years.(1) The United States Bureau of Justice also reported that of the 100 fatalities that occurred in the workplace of healthcare and social service employees in 2013, 27 of the fatalities were due to violent attacks and assaults.(4)

There are two forms of community violence identified as witnessing and victimization. Community violence may include acts such as homicides, sexual assaults, robberies, and weapon attacks. Community violence affects all ages and ethnic groups, however, some individuals are more at risk than others. Specifically, youth living in inner-cities are more likely to be exposed to violence at a higher rate than youth living in neighborhoods of higher socioeconomic status (Cooley-Strickland, et al., 2009). Some factors that increase one's chances of experiencing community violence include living in poor, inner-city neighborhoods, being in a gang, using alcohol or drugs, and belonging to a minority (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,

So far, there have been few states that have enacted the Workplace Violence Legislative Agenda aimed at preventing workplace violence, which are: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona,

Scenario #3 is the one that I will be discussing for this case study. Conflicts will arise no matter where you work, it is almost impossible to avoid them. No two people think exactly the same and it is important to communicate to minimize conflict but embrace and learn from situations when they arise. Conflicts should never be left unresolved as people can grow significantly frustrated and the results can be deadly. Workplace violence has happened many times in the past and scenario #3 could possibly result in such from either the workers or their loved ones. Scenario #3 discusses an SVP, named Robert, who is being completely unprofessional in dealing with his employees. I will seek to investigate and understand the root of the problem, along with giving recommendations to my boss as a result of my investigation.

This paper will discuss workplace policy on violence, policy analysis, and interview to a DNP prepared nurse on workplace violence. Organizational stressor is one of the many factors that can contribute to workplace violence. This factors include, inadequate staffing, emotional exhaustion, long working hours, or lateral violence. According to Raynolds, Kelly, & Singh-Carson, 2014) lateral violence is the act that transpires between peers or nurse-to-nurse where verbal abuse, aggression, incivility, or bullying occurs. Health care settings should be places that perpetuate tranquility, respectful and collaborative environment. Hence, a work place where the environment is positive and safe denotes that the principle of non-maleficence exists (Morrison, 2011). Given to this, the writer conducted an interview with a professional colleague; Doctor Sarah Oba to get her opinion pertaining to work place violence against nurses and

OSHA Fact Sheet (2012) states “ workplace violence is a violence or the threat of violence against workers” (p.1). Workplace violence causes serious harm to employees or homicide that can lead to deaths. Act in any kind of shapes and forms such as: physical threat, threatening behavior, intention of assault and battery, verbal abuse, beating, stabbing, rape, shooting, being followed, psychological trauma, suicide, treat or obscene phone call/text, intimidation. Workplace violence can happen to anyone, anywhere at or outside the workplace location either during from/to work or from/to client’s traveling temporary or permanent where any work-related duty performances. It is not limited to just employees, but also customers, clients, and invitees. Workplace violence is one of the most concerns for not just employers, but worldwide workers.

Imagine a violent situation escalates in your work area. Violent workplace situations are becoming more common in today’s work environment. While many of these events seemingly happen in the civilian sector, workplace violence is a current issue in the United States Air Force. Incidents involving fatalities in Myrtle Beach, McGuire, Fairchild, and the Air Force Academy illustrate that all members play a vital role in recognizing potentially violent situations. So while the definition of workplace violence is subject to interpretation, the impact to the workplace quite clear, and the proactive steps taken to prevent and diffuse these situations have huge social and economic benefits.

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.

The next type of workplace violence is Worker-on-Worker (Type III). This is when the perpetrator is an employee or past employee of the business who attacks or threatens another employee in the workplace. Worker-on-worker fatalities account for approximately 7% of