Violence In The Workplace: A Case Study

If those who witness horizontal violence taking place or if the nurse being targeted does not speak up, it can keep occurring until the situation starts to have a negative impact on the targeted nurse. The effects can start to show up in the nurse’s work and in patient satisfaction. It can also lead to the nurse leaving their hospital for a new hospital to work for and it can even lead to the nurse leaving the nursing profession for good. Some nurses deal with this type of stress by seeing it as a challenge that they must endure in order to be become hardy and resilient

Horizontal violence in nursing refers to the constant fights and antagonism among nurses in their course of duty. The violence involves conflicts among nurses and those people that they closely work with for instance physicians and medical supervisors. Examples of chaotic ways highly experienced are bullying, sarcastic comments and withdrawn support the effects lower the dignity of those involved in the violence. Horizontal violence has specific effects to the student nurses and those who are still new in the profession (Howe, 2001). The violence discourages new nurses in their professional growth because their capacity to learn and develop is slowed down. The focus of our group work is to find out the cause of this violence and the effects on nurses and patients they attend

The purpose of this quasi-experimental pilot project is to determine if providing training for mental health nurses on assessing assault risk in geriatric psychiatric patients will help improve the nurse’s knowledge and assessment of assault risk for this population during their inpatient stay. According to the World Health Organization, “between 8% and 38% of health workers suffer physical violence at some point in their careers”. Violence against health care workers has been extensively studied and research indicates that some areas are more prone to violence towards the staff than other areas of the hospital. The areas that are known for high incidence of assault are emergency rooms and inpatient psychiatric units. It also has the highest

The primary purpose of health care is to serve the patients’ physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. However in a recent news headline in Vancouver Sun newspaper in February 24, 2015 tackle the stories entitled: B.C. nurses to begin filing charges against violent and aggressive patients. It stated that nurses are tired of being kicked, punched and slapped. Nurses are tired for the government and health authorities to take action that leads them the need to protect themselves to get more harm. Such incidents is one of the many example of

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.

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).

Pich, Hazelton, Sundin, and Kable (2010) research aimed to explore the concept of nurses in Australia being identified as the occupation at most risk of patient-related violence in the health care sector. The researchers found that patient-related violence against nurses was highest in emergency departments; 70% of nurses working there estimated to experience violence on a weekly basis and between 60-90% of nurses reported exposure to violence, both verbal and physical (Pich et al., 2010). Patients were consistently identified as the most common source of such violence, responsible for ≤89% of all cases (Pich et al., 2010). Verbal abuse, a form of psychological abuse, was reported by ≤82% of nurses across a range of clinical environments

Lateral violence (LV), is described as one or more secretly or blatantly targeting their discontentment towards each other, themselves or those weaker than themselves. Some may classify it as bullying, aggression, horizontal violence (HV) or professional terrorism, and it 's characterized by facial expressions, spiteful comments, hindering of important information, criticism, blaming, and disregard in all degrees with some so severe they 've resulted in suicide. Lateral violence has been in literature for 20 years and still vastly exists today (Griffin, 2014). Due to the traumatic effect bullying has on a nurse physically and psychologically, along with the safety of the patients she cares for, interventions must take place immediately to bring it to an end. If LV is allowed to continue, the effects it has on the nursing profession are critical such as nursing shortages, staff burnouts, elevated nurse resignation rates and a decline in the amount and quality of work one performs accompanied with a high potential for patient related errors (Becher & Visovsky, 2012). Organizations, managers and nurses are all responsible for eliminating lateral violence in the nursing workplace because each role directly impacts this major issue through education, tolerance and interactions.

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)

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).

The significance of this clinical problem can be seen in the outcomes of horizontal violence which includes but not limited to; increase the rate of nurses shortage, decreased job and career satisfaction and increased emotional exhaustion. In severe cases, horizontal violence is associated with post traumatic stress disorder and poor mental and physical health, this highlights and increases the need to prevent horizontal violence especially among new graduate nurses who are most vulnerable (Read & Laschinger, 2015). Statistically

Kvas and Seljak (2015) found that establishing a violence-free workplace is essential, and is an on-going process that every organization must be on board with. Kvas and Seljak (2015) went on to say that leaders in a health care organization play an important role in violence prevention, and serve as role models that should never tolerate incivility, bullying, or workplace violence. However, managers and other health care leaders are often the perpetrators of violence, and must be held accountable for their actions (Kvas & Seljak, 2015). Not only that, but physicians are a major contributor to physical and mental abuse, and must also be held liable. With that in mind, there are many ways nurses can prevent violence from occurring in the

“Paradoxically, the job sector with the mission to care for people appears to be at the highest risk of workplace violence. Nurses are among the most assaulted workers in the American workforce “ (NACNEP, 2007).Nurses Exposure to bullying, physical and nonphysical violence is commonly seen in the nursing profession globally and historically. Bullying and abuse against nurses results in low morale, job satisfaction, and can negatively impact nurse turnover and quality of patient care.

Description of Passive Violence: Since I am one of the new hires at work, I have experience passive violence, where I was the recipient. My past few shifts were closing, so basically all I would do is fold clothes and organize it making the floor look nice. One of the leads, would constantly be on my back making sure I am doing everything right. Every closing group as a meeting, during that meeting my lead made a comment on the new hires that they should be doing this. I knew she was talking about me, because I’m pretty sure I was the only new worker. One night, as it was almost time to clock out, she check our sides to see how it is. As my co-worker finished with her side, she asks if I am almost done, I said I only have this side left to do and she had a disgusted look on her face like, this person is slow. The next day I closed again and when she saw me she said jokingly, “You again?,” as if she did not want me there. Deep down inside, I was a little hurt even though she said it as a joke.

Workplace violence is more common than people realize and it can happen to anyone. No one is safe no matter who they are. Violence can happen to someone who was just recently hired or someone who has been with the company for ten years. The employee could be an intern or a manager even. Violence is defined as an act of physical or verbal abuse, harassment, or a threatening behavior (Safety and Health Topics). These acts can be carried out by an employee, customers, or even strangers. The violence is not always between two employees at a workplace either. It can be between an employee and a customer or an employee and a random stranger on the street, but it counts as workplace violence as long as it is on the company property or on the companies’ time.