Essay Workplace Violence in Nursing

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

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.

Which of the following statements BEST defines how current legislative approaches define workplace violence and aggression?

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 3 articles, survivors of healthcare worker directed violence admitted to knowingly spending less time with their patients after the attack.(8, 12, 16) Quality of care is also reduced as survivors admit to being fearful of their patients as well as being reluctant to care for specific patients or any patients at all.(8, 17, 19, 25) After an incident of workplace violence, survivors stated that they have decreased communication with their patients, patient families, and coworkers.(12, 27) Survivors also admitted to having reduced interest in being a part of patient care, as well as being in their current position.(8, 12, 14, 19) One article found that physiotherapists often reduced their expectations for their patients after experiencing an incidence of workplace violence from a patient.(8) Survivors also found that they had reduced empathy and gave reduced emotional support to patients and their families after returning to work.(15) After an attack by a patient, survivors admitted to lacking concentration that led to missed medication administration, increased falls, and increased errors in administration of care.(10, 15, 17, 27)

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.

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.

Harassment has plagued the world for centuries. Why should the workplace be any different? Sexual harassment and workplace violence are not only of historical roots, but contemporary issues are still present in the workforce today. Managers are addressing and combating modern sexual harassment and workplace violence, however instances still occur (Robbins, Decenzo & Coulter, 2011).

The problem of interest that I chose to discuss is lateral violence (LV) in nursing. LV is a deliberate and harmful behavior demonstrated in the workplace by one employee to another, it is a significant problem in the nursing profession (Christie, 2014). LV is the same thing as bullying someone. Studies estimate that 44% to 85% of nurses are victims of LV; up to 93% of nurses report witnessing LV in the workplace (Christie, 2014). LV can affect the victim’s physical and mental health, it can affect patient care and safety, and can be detrimental to the work environment. LV is often perpetrated by nurse managers and some nurses are afraid to report the LV for fear of retaliation or losing their jobs (Christie, 2014).

Nursing is a profession that is based on the principles of caring and ethics. For years nursing has been continuously ranked as the most trusted profession (Riffkin, 2014). Nurses advocate for patients even if it means standing up to doctors and hospital administrators. Shockingly, for a job rooted in compassion, horizontal violence is a devastatingly common occurrence in the nursing profession. Horizontal violence, or workplace bullying, is defined as repeated incidences of aggressive behaviour intended to intimidate, degrade, humiliate, and offend a person or group of people (Ontario Nursing Association, 2012). Nurse-to-nurse aggression can range from yelling, withholding information, refusing to help, undermining a fellow nurse 's work ability and threatening unnecessary disciplinary action (Rocker, 2008). In Canada, 50% of nurses reported being verbally abused and 46% experienced hostility or conflict with colleagues (Statistics Canada, 2005). While many nurses are victims of bullying, many do not report the incidents and develop poor coping strategies. When a nurse does not report a bully, they are putting their mental health at risk. Nursing programs must implement educational programs for student nurses. They rely on safe clinical placements to develop and practice essential nursing skills. However, the toxic environment that bullying creates jeopardizes not only their education but their mental health as well, spurring on ramifications that last a lifetime.

Indeed, Fudge (2006) describes this as vertical violence, which means that the act of violence is between senior and junior colleagues. Horizontal violence is across peer groups and similar levels of staff. The most common aggressors or bullies are nurse-managers and supervisors (Leiper, 2005). Certainly, education is very influential in terms of the respect seen among health care professionals, because it has been an ongoing issue as to understanding the hierarchy in the health care profession. The bridge between education and collaboration is still suffering today and it is an issue to address.

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

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.

“The first step in teaching nurses how to decrease bullying by others is to help them understand what to do and what not to do when confronted by a bully” (Rocker, 2008, Education, para. 13). Nurses need to be aware of how to recognize horizontal violence, and how to be able to stop it. Furthermore, Baltimore (2006) explained that nurses need to try and resist the temptation of participating in gossip which could ultimately result in people losing respect for nurses (p. 35). Nurses also need to be respectful and value differences among other nurses. Each nurse is unique and may have different ways of implementing his/her type of care. Therefore, it is crucial that nurses respect these differences (Rocker, 2008, Policy, para. 14). If nurses are able to be consciously aware of these small things, it can make a huge difference on how they treat other coworkers, and how others view them. Not only is it important for nurses to understand what horizontal violence is, but managers of hospitals need to be well educated of this as well. Brunt (2011) stated that managers have a key role in preventing and altering horizontal violence in the workforce. It is important that managers create an environment where staff members feel comfortable coming to the managers with concerns. Managers need to be educated about how to deal with the negativity of horizontal violence (p. 7). Managers can improve relationships, trust, and productivity and reduce tension by

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.