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The effects of workplace violence in the healthcare
Fundamental of nursing safety
Workplace violence
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Workplace aggression and violence is an issue that has been receiving more attention in the media recently. According to Neuman and Baron (1998), workplace violence is behaviours of workplace aggression involving physical assaults of harming others at work. In the healthcare industry, statements have indicated that healthcare providers have faced the highest number of Type 2 violence in which the perpetrators are patients and visitors who directed physical violence against workers (Phillips, 2016). It has become a growing problem in the healthcare industry for healthcare providers such as nurses to worries about their safety at work according to Cipirano, the 35th president of American Nurses Association (2015, Sept 4). In hope to ensure healthcare …show more content…
According to the issue by FBI, healthcare workers in the U.S. have the highest number of physical violence directed at them among other occupations (FBI Academy, 2003). Base on the guidelines of the Occupational Safety and Health Administation (OSHA), a shockingly high percentage reported 70-74% of approximately 24,000 workplace assaults annually between the year of 2011 and 2013 were directed at workers in healthcare and social service settings, with 10-11% of workplace injuries involving in healthcare workers taking days away from work. (OSHA, 2015) Moreover, data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that healthcare worker are 3-4 times more likely to requires days off due work injuries resulted from violence than employees in other sectors; while the OSHA guideline estimated healthcare workers having a 20% higher rate of facing work violence than other workers between year of 1993-2009 (OSHA, 2015 & BLS,2014). In study by Schat and Kelloway (2000), they proposed outcomes of violence influences fear, emotional and somatic wellbeing of the worker. These reported results and statistics are the wake-up calls to hospital and organizations, that they should stop ignoring the existed prevalence of work violence and its negative …show more content…
In the review by Wassell (2009), it was stated that strategy of patient management on their violent and aggressive behaviours was found to be associated with decreased Type 2 violence in healthcare settings, as well as other effective interventions including installation of security system such as cameras, metal detectors and security personal. Also, policy components addresses ‘zero tolerance’ for violence and included published lists of types of prohibited violent behaviours were found to significantly reduced the risk of violence by one half (Wassell,
Domestic violence affects the victim physically often times causing injuries that could lead to hospitalization or death, psychologically involving gaining control over the victim as well, and socially by isolating them from family and friends. When we think of the effects of domestic violence it becomes clear that it not only affects the victim and the family but as in recent years, the violence can spill beyond the walls of the home into the neighborhood and the workplace resulting in what has become more and more common, domestic violence related workplace shootings. Domestic v...
Lateral violence is a major issue that often occurs within the healthcare setting, and it places great impact on the delivery of healthcare. I personally have experienced being a victim of lateral violence within my current workplace setting. In November 2014, I began a new job working with patients dealing with alcohol and substance addiction. I came onto the job with an ADN, while there was an older male nurse with a BSN who started the same time I did. This nurse was assigned to a work a supervisory position on a higher-level monitoring detoxification/behavioral unit. I noticed that there were times when myself, as well as other female nurses, would need to communicate to him that a patient needed to be more closely monitored. On several
Several databases including Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and Cochrane were accessed using the key words “workplace violence,” “nurses,” student nurses,” horizontal violence,” “bullying,” “oppression,” and “intergroup conflict.” The purpose of the literature search was to determine the predominance of horizontal violence among new nurses and nursing students.
The trauma related to negative behavior can afflict the healthcare environment on many levels, from creating a hostile work environment in which job performance is affected, by increasing job turnover and causing nurses to leave the profession altogether. The Joint Commission states that in the United States 65.6 million workers have experienced or witnessed bullying, psychological harassment affects 38 percent of healthcare workers, and 44 percent of nurses are impacted by this behavior (The Joint Commission, 2016). Inclusively, this behavior can influence the way nurses care for their patients, staffing levels, and the healthcare organization’s
The small study was done to determine how often particpants were exposed to lateral violence. This voluntary study was a web based study to allow anonymoty and consisted of a pretest then an educational session followed by a post test, with a three month follow up survey. The pre-intervention survey showed that staff was seeing lateral violence weekly and post intervention showed a decrease in behaviors to monthly. This shows that education can have a positive impact on decreasing incidents of lateral violence.
Now a days, in the healthcare field the nurses are known to prevent, promote and improve the health and abilities of patients, families and communities. It is very heartbreaking to hear that in this honorable profession exists violence, bullying which is among not only nurses but also other healthcare professionals. According to the article, Reducing Violence Against Nurses: The Violence Prevention Community Meeting, violence is defined as any verbal or physical behavior resulting in, or intended to result in, physical or physiological injury, pain, or harm. In the healthcare field the term that is used when there is violence between coworkers is called horizontal violence. This is a term that is continued to be used but some hospitals have replaced it with the terms bullying or lateral violence. Horizontal violence is violence between nurses and it explains the behavior nurses have toward their coworkers and other healthcare professionals. This type of violence interferes with working together as a team and communicating between coworkers, which are things that are needed to promote and care for others.
According to (Abdollahzadeh, 2016), the issue of incivility in nursing can be defined as “low intensity” deviant behavior with the intent to harm the target. Nurses are subjected to incivility at a higher rate than other job fields, and this concern is one that has an impact on the mental health and well-being of nurses and can lead to a reduction in job satisfaction and employee recruitment and retention
Assaults in the healthcare setting are recognized as a growing problem. In considering the violence and aggression in mental health units, the larger issue of violence and aggression in mainstream culture must not be ignored. It has been observed that physical attack in a mental health unit setting appear to be happening more frequently while the attacks include patient-to patient and patient-to-staff aggressive behavior. Most commonly, reporting of aggressive behavior toward healthcare staff is noted; however, it cannot be completely explained by patient characteristics or staff member behaviors (Foster, Bowers, & Nijman, 2006). To improve patient control of aggression and violence, an organization must better define the management and reporting of this behavior, identify appropriate management programs and training, and evaluate the frequency and precipitants.
Therefore, this position statement is relevant because these abuses can be seen in day-to-day healthcare environment. The effects of violence in nursing can be harmful to the proper function within a workplace. It can be damaging to the nursing profession and patient care. According to (Johnston et al., 2010, p.36), workplace violence is “spreading like a ‘superbug.’” Studies have shown, that lateral violence, nurse-on-nurse, has been one of the highest incidence of violence within the workplace. Also, statistics have shown that lateral violence has one of the most emotional impacts on an individual. This will be further discussed below. For these reasons, it is important for healthcare workers to validate the detrimental effects violence can have in the workplace, and be prepared to combat and prevent workplace violence.
It is crucial for the nursing profession to address violence to improve retention and recruitment of nurses. Horizontal violence behaviors are not conducive to a culture of safety, which is what healthcare should be all about. Nursing Managers, Hospitals and different organizations must have a “zero tolerance” policy for these behaviors and a protection policy for the nurses reporting the situations. Only we as nurses and other health care personnel have the capacity to eliminate horizontal violence and fulfill our commitment to our patients, families and communities in a safe environment.
Workplace violence in the nursing profession has been extensively reported and documented. It is associated with serious negative consequences both for the nurse and their patients. Such disruptive behaviors in the nursing profession severely impact the emotional and mental well-being of the nurses that in turn affects retaining qualified and experiences staff in a healthcare organization. Such type of violence is considered as a major occupational hazard and condemned by major nursing organizations including the CENTER for American Nurses and American Nurse Organization. In the nursing profession workplace violence includes several types of negative behavior such as lateral violence, bullying and aggression. Lateral or horizontal violence is described as harmful or disrespectful behavior towards a coworker or a group of coworkers which in essence denies them of their basic human right and has a profound negative effect on their self-esteem and confidence (Becher & Visovsky, 2012). While lateral violence is mostly observed among peers or coworkers bullying is generally observed between a higher authority staff and those working under them such as a nursing supervisor and a staff nurse. Bullying is mostly verbal in nature which involves the use of abusive language, intimidation, insult and using authority to subdue, threaten or humiliate their subordinates (Lateral Violence and Bullying, 2008). When nurses are subjected to any kind of horizontal violence or bullying over a period of time it unduly affects them with physical, emotional, mental and financial consequences. In addition such workplace violence also brings forth negative consequences for the healthcare organization and patients in particular. Thus given the seriousness o...
The high rates of emergency department violence has multiple direct and indirect factors. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) produced a list of risk factors for workplace violence in 1996. Almost 20 years later, these factors are still relevant, and many of them apply to the emergency department environment. A relevant factor on the list included working in a community based setting, since all emergency department wards in Canada are accessible to the public. Working over night or into the early morning is another applicable factor as the majority of hospitals are open 24 hours. Other relevant factors...
No one ever goes to work and expects to get injured. Workplace accidents and injuries in the United States, cost employers $62 billion, according to the 2016 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index (Donlon, 2016). Of the $62 billion, 82.5% of those injuries can be credited to 10 of the leading causes (Donlon, 2016). Some of the most serious are nonfatal workplace injuries, yet they still cost companies millions of dollars every year. The workplace injuries impact more people involved than just the person who was hurt and the employer. The employees’ family can be affected by the financial burden, medical costs, and the physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing of the employee. The employer and its employees are also affected. In addition
Bowie (as cited in Davis and Snyman, 2005) notes that the typology of workplace violence that is generally accepted in current legal, occupational health and safety, criminology and security circles is one that is based on the relationship of the perpetrator to the workplace. The Californian Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) developed a workplace typology. In this typology, workplace violence events are classified into five types, namely Type I which is stranger violence, Type II is client/customer violence and Type III is organisational violence, which is violence that is committed within the organisations. Type IV and Type include workplace violence types and employer violence which covers physical and non-physical violence committed by an employer on an employee (Cal/OSHA, 1995).
A practical suggestion is to address the social and organisational factors that underpin aggressive behaviour. The researcher did not identify the triggers of aggression but interestingly, looked at patient’s views on the cause and management of aggression.