The Effects Of Workplace Violence On The Workplace

Nursing is a predominately caring and compassionate field. Nurses care for their patients and the patients family day in and day out. Yet nursing is not immune to hostile behavior towards their fellow nurses. Lateral violence is the politically correct term for addressing “bullying” in the workplace (Hippeli, 2009). In nursing, the phrase: “Nurses eat their young”, can be commonly heard to describe bully-type behavior. Beacher & Visovsly (2012) describe horizontal or lateral violence done by nurses to nurses as hostile, aggressive, and harmful behavior by a nurse or group of nurses towards a coworker or group of nurses via attitudes, actions, words, and/or behaviors

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

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.

According to Purpora and Blegen, approximately 60% of actual errors in patient care result from poor and ineffective communication (para. 3). Horizontal violence causes a decrease in effective communication between caregivers which places the patient’s safety in jeopardy. Horizontal violence decreases staff morale which leaves room for error in the workplace (Longo & Smith, 2011).

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

Lateral violence also known as horizontal violence, incivility, or bullying has been a phenomenon researched for over three decades according to nursing researchers. This paper aims to discuss the impact that lateral violence has on the work environment, teamwork, self esteem, and patient care. Lateral violence is a phenomenon that has negative implications on the nursing profession due to the fact it can be avoided but still occurs. Lateral violence has been defined as any unwanted abuse or hostility within the workplace and “nurses covertly or overtly directing their dissatisfaction inward towards each other, towards themselves, and toward those less powerful than themselves (Griffin, 2004, p. 257), as quoted by (Roberts, 2014, p.36). According to Sanner-Steieh and Ward-Smith (2014) “lateral violence may be verbal consisting of persistent criticism, gossiping, yelling or berating; or nonverbal consisting of behaviors of undermining, sabotaging, clique formation, failure to respect privacy or confidences, and assigning unmanageable workloads”. Lateral violence has negative implications that directly affect patient care because it creates high incidents of nurse turn-over which results in hospitals often being short staffed, the nurses on shift work longer hours with bigger caseloads, and the patient’s are the ones who experience an unsatisfactory quality of care. Studies estimate that 44% to 85% of nurses are victims of lateral violence and up to 93% of nurses report

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.

In reality, there are limited places that violence cannot happen, however, we are often surprised by some of the places violence does take place. One of the places many don’t expect violence to take place is in the hospital. Hospitals are designed to promote safety and provide medical care and nursing treatment for sick or injured people. Unfortunately, on January 12, 2016 a hospital security guard and a police officer endured near-fatal shootings by a drug-affected patient in Nepal. Rachel Olding, the author of an article written February 4, 2016 points out some concerns, thoughts, and ideas for improvement taken from hospital workers who have seen and experienced hospital violence firsthand. Hospitals need to be a place of safety for their patients, staff, and visitors.

Lateral violence in the nursing profession obviously affects the nurse or nurses being targeted greatly. It is thought that nurses display this violence because in their careers they feel as though they do not have enough power and seem to be near the bottom of the healthcare team hierarchy. As a result, one often sees nurses take this resentment out on one another (Roberts, 2015). When one’s perception is that he or she has little power what will his or her most likely reaction be? Blair (2013) states that a lot of nurses demonstrate lateral violence in some form as a means of feeling like they have obtained some power. Nurses should be taking what power they do have and using it in a positive manner rather than belittling colleagues. Nursing entails a lot of teamwork and interaction among each other and it would be a shame to allow lateral violence

This is relevant for me as it is for everyone in the healthcare industry. We all want to work in an environment that is free from violence especially in an environment that is already full of stress. It is good to know that there are governmental sanctions for those that violate harassment or violence regulations in the workplace. We still need management to be accountable with those under their direction, disciplining and counseling problem employees as necessary. Because of this threat that constantly hangs over our heads we as nurses should develop a process or plan

Long-term exposure to bullying affects the performance of nurses which ultimately puts the patients at risk (Granstra, 2015). Without civility in the workplace, the quality and quantity of hard work will diminish (Granstra, 2015). Civility is important in the nursing practice because it enables teamwork, communication, and respect. Without teamwork, communication, and respect, employees work in an environment hampered by ineffective coordination of care (Granstra, 2015). For example, nurses should be communicating about changes in the patient’s condition.

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).

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.

Emergency Room Nurses experience significantly higher risks of workplace violence compared to any other member of the multi disciplinary team (Waschgler, 2012). Multiple factors contribute to this risk, including working directly with stressed out people, people who have a history of violence, persons under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and persons with mental health issues, or persons under arrest. Healthcare workers, specifically nurses, have had a history of considering physical and verbal assaults part of the job. Becoming an Emergency Room nurse simply means you deal with the abuse (Droste, Miller, & Baker, 2014). Hospitals have had a history of tolerance for this behavior and varying levels of commitment to eliminate workplace violence.

totally agree, workplace violence is scary and puts staff at risk of harm. Where I work, we recently went to an open visiting policy, which non of the nurses agree with, and we are the ones having to deal with visitors. This policy went into effect to please the visitors, but what about patient and staff safety. Having visiting hours 24-7, is just ridiculous, in my opinion. Patients are in the hospital because they are ill and need rest. And, why would someone want to come visit a patient at 3am?? I was always taught, you can do the same things before 12a and nothing good happens after 12a. I think having open visiting 24-7, is just asking for problems.