Workplace Violence Attacks On Nurses

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Introduction on Workplace Violence
Attacks on nurses are far more common than many people realize. As nurses we should not have to fear for our safety while performing our jobs to help serve the needs of the community, and we should know that violence is not part of nurse’s job description. Sadly, nurses often ignore or tolerate workplace violence from patients and visitors because of fear, lack of knowledge, and other factors. Many of these nurses leave or contemplate leaving this crucial profession due to the horrors they face in the workplace. With this being said, advocating for the nursing population is key, along with implementing methods to help decrease the risk of workplace violence. In order to better understand workplace violence, …show more content…

They are either afraid to report the incident, feel that nothing will be done, or that the amount of time to report the incidence outweighs the abuse. In some workplace violence cases, the employers blame the nurse, making the nurse feel that they are the reason for the occurrence due to their emotional and physical weakness. This is an increasing problem, in over 100 united states healthcare facilities, the overall rate of workplace violence has rose from 4 to 5 percent between 2012 and 2014 (Small, 2015). Without proper interventions, workplace assault on nurses will continue to increase and become even a more serious problem in …show more content…

Reiterated multiple times, workplace violence should not be apart of the nursing job, and nurses from everywhere should be protected under laws or with proper training. Without a change in the laws or training towards this issue, nurses around the United States would continue to be victims of workplace violence and the incidence rate would continue to rise. Due to nurses being too commonly exposed to workplace violence, Hospitals need to enhance programs for training and incident reporting, particularly for nurses at higher risk of exposure such as nurses working in the Emergency Department and Psychiatric Units. Not only is workplace violence dangerous, it is also costly, with estimated charges easily exceeding $4.2 billion a year. Going back to the dangerous factor, we can see that this violence accounts for 1.7 million nonfatal assaults each year and over 900 workplace homicides each year, resulting in physical, professional, personal, emotional, and organizational consequences. However, one of the most severe side effects of workplace violence is the serious impacts it has on job performance, productivity, job satisfaction, staff retention, and staff self-esteem (Speroni et al.,

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