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,
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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.,
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 paper will address the problem of nurse hostility toward each other. It will address the etiology of the problem, and suggest some possible solutions or therapy to the problem. It will be discovered if truly preventive programs such as violence-prevention programs
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 majority of the articles reviewed found that education on regcognizing and addressing lateral violence was the key to decreasing the its incidence. The difference in the articles is when the education should take place; Ebrahimi, Negarandeh, Jeffrey, and Azizi, (2016) conducted a study on experienced nurses who either committed workplace violence or had witnessed it against new nurses. The small interview style study consisted of questions discussing why the participants felt the violence occurred on new nurses. At the conclusion this study reccommended preparing the experienced nurse on how to support the new nurses, providing education to the new nurses on how to deal with workplace violence, and should problems arise how to help the staff resolve
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.
Many registered nurses define horizontal violence differently because being a nurse they have seen many type of horizontal violence throughout his or her career. Horizontal violence defined as bullying or mistreatment of a group or individual physically, verbally and psychologically (Ahrens, 2012). Some examples that would be consider physical would be sexual misconduct. Verbal violence would be rude comments or cussing at one author. In addition, to psychological violence would include being fussed at in front of patients and or their families by a co-worker for doing something wrong and nurses purposely withholding information from another nurse, which causes patient’s needs not to be met. The horizontal violence in the work place puts lots of stress on nurses especially registered nurses (R.N.) . Nurses who tolerate horizontal violence tend to have depression, low self-esteem, missed days from work, become fatigued, burnout, causes hospitals, or clinics to have nurse ret...
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
Workplace bullying is increasingly being recognised as a serious problem in society. Reports from the general media and professional press suggest that there is increasing evidence that the scale of bullying, harassment and violence amongst health care staff is widespread (UNISON, 2003). Chaboyer, Najman, and Dunn (2001) explain that although nursing in Australia is now considered a profession, the use of horizontal violence, bullying and aggression in nursing interactions has been identified as a serious problem. Levett-Jones (as cited in Clare, White, Edwards, & van Loon, 2002) explains that the recipients or victims of bullying within the nursing profession are often graduate nurses, with 25% of graduates reporting negative experiences. Bullying behaviour often renders the workplace a harmful, fearful and abusive environment and has a devastating effect on the nurse, healthcare team and patient. This essay will discuss the issue of bullying within the nursing profession, with a particular focus on the experiences of graduate nurses. The contributing historical, social, political and economic factors will be explored in order to better understand the origins of this trend. The subsequent impact of bullying on nursing practice will be analysed and recommendations for practice, supported by current literature, will be provided.
McNamara, S. A. (2012). Incivility in nursing: unsafe nurse, unsafe patients. AORN Journal, 95(4), 535-540. doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2012.01.020
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.
Workplace violence can be caused by a number of underlying factors which can include but is not limited to alcohol and drug abuse, job loss, depression, mental illnesses, or an accumulation of debt. In addition, when people are mistr...
Research shows horizontal violence to be prevalent in the field of registered nursing. Although a comprehensive quantity of incidences within the profession is undetermined, the literature is in agreement such phenomenon exists and the effects of which require further scholarly observation and evaluation.
Bullying in Nursing Judith Meissner who was a nursing professor coined the phase ‘Nurses eat their young’ back in 1986 for nurses bullying inexperienced colleagues (Robbins, 2015; Sauer, 2012). ‘Nurses eating their young’ is a term use for nurse-on-nurse bullying that includes ignoring, gossiping, disrespect, undermining, sabotage, verbal abuse, and physical violence (Baker, 2012). In recent literature, the labels that are being used to describe the negative behaviours are bullying, verbal abuse, lateral violence, horizontal violence, harassment, and disruptive behaviours (Sauer, 2012). Nursing is a profession that is based on the principles of being caring, compassion, and empathic. It is so odd that members of this profession turn a blind-eye
DESCRIPTION Most health care workers and nurses are faced verbal abuse, physical assaults and injuries, more often from the patients, which they're trying to help. There should be a way where nurses can call on OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to promptly pass regulations to prevent violence and protect employees in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care workplaces nationwide. Feelings In this paragraph, I would explain how it feels too abused by those who you are trying to help get better and go back to their loved ones.