Introduction
Workplace violence is an action of violent behaviour, physical assault, or threatening behaviour that occurs in a work setting. It causes physical or emotional trauma to customers, co-workers, or managers. Workplace Violence includes beatings, stabbings, suicides, shootings, rapes, near-suicides, threats or obscene phone calls, intimidation, and harassment of any nature (Government Agency, n.d). The workplace can be referring to any location either permanent or temporary as long as the employee performs their work-related duty. General definitions of workplace violence have been mentioned over and over again include acts of sabotage on work-site property (USLEGAL, 2016).
In general not all violence in the workplace is physical. According to Di Martino (2002), the violence is divided to two categories which are non-physical and psychological violence. Psychological violence includes harassment, sexual harassment, bullying and mobbing. While the physical violence at the place of work has been always being known, the psychological violence has been ignored for a long time due to the lack of understanding of its effect but has since been given due attention. Psychological violence prevention is currently emerging as a priority issue at the workplace, leading to a new awareness and re-evaluation of the important of all psychological risks at work.
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Angry former employees stressed out employees or a conflict between co-workers can elevate to the point of a violent argument in the office. Personal life does sometimes spill over into the workplace, and sometimes those personal issues present themselves at the office with dangerous consequences. Employees driven to desperations by psychological bullying or threats can also react violently if they feel victimised and no one to turn to for help to resolve their
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...
Workplace bullying is defined as any as any type of repetitive abuse in which the victim of the bullying behaviour suffers verbal abuse, threats, humiliating or intimidating behaviours, or behaviours that interfere with his or her job performance and are meant to place at risk the health and safety of the victim (Murray, 2009). Bullying can take many forms, some blatant, others more subtle. Researchers ha...
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).
Nursing is a healthcare profession that helps prevent, promote, and optimize the health and abilities of families and communities. With such a noble and caring profession, it is very sad that violence, or bullying, exists among nurses and other healthcare disciplines. This type of violence is called lateral or horizontal violence. Violence is defined as any inappropriate behavior, confrontation or conflict that causes low self-esteem or other injuries. Horizontal violence is known to be the type of violence between coworkers.
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...
In the early 1980s aggression and violence in the workplace have been a source of a lot of public discussion. (Piquero pg.383) The issues have risen again recently and have mostly been present in management and business fields. Workplace aggression often includes “behavior by an individual or individuals within or outside organizations that is intended to physically or psychologically harms a worker or workers and occurs in a work related”. (Schat& Kelloway Pg. 191) A national survey Conducted by the National Centers for Victims of Crime shows several statistics regarding workplace homicide by type show that is the year of (see fig. 1), violent crimes against victims working or an duty( see fig. 2) and nonfatal workplace violence committed by strangers(see fig. 3
Bullying, horizontal violence, lateral violence, disruptive behaviours are all related to nursing profession. In several studies, workplace violence is defined as a“catch-all” term which revolves around issues related to physical violence against the healthcare workers, disruptive physician attitudes toward nurses and other health-care personnel, supervisor-subordinate abuse (also known as hori...
Workplace violence is any type of threat or hostility acted out against workers. It can occur in or out of the workplace and can range from threats and verbal abuse, to physical assaults and homicide. This has become one of the leading causes of job-related deaths (OSHA). Workplace violence can happen at any given point in time to anyone. No one is untouchable.
In order to recognize the behavioral patterns to prevent violence, one must understand the definition of workplace violence. According to the American Nurses Association, the definition of workplace violence means any sort of verbal abuse, threatening behavior, or a physical assault occurring in the workplace (“Workplace Violence” 2013). Some of the behaviors that might be observed indicating an act of violence is about to occur are: intimidating, harassing, bullying, inappropriate or aggressive behavior, increased agitation (i.e. snappy comments), inability to be still, noncompliance with simple requests, statements of desperation, references to committing suicide, direct or indirect threats. If these signs are noticed in a patient or family member, the nurse should intervene immediately. It is important to remember that other nurses are also capable of violence and looking for their behavioral warning signs are equal...
Vessey, J., Demarco, R., & DiFazio, R. (2010). Bullying, harassment, and horizontal violence in the nursing workforce: The state of the science. Annual Review Of Nursing Research, 28, 133-157. doi:10.1891/0739-6686.28.133
It has been estimated in a study by the American Management Association that managers spend between 20% to as much as 50% of their times dealing with conflict among their employees (American Sentinel, 2012). When workplace conflicts are left unresolved they can lead to dissatisfaction, depression and other problems such as aggression and violence (Whitworth 2008). The negative, sometimes hostile, environment created by unresolved conflict has been recognized to be a hazard not only to staff, but also to patient care (The Joint Commission 2008).
Executive Summary With rising health care costs, increasing patient volumes, and updated process, revenue cycle management is becoming increasingly important to hospitals trying to maximize reimbursements. However, improving revenue cycle management is challenging for organizations due to numerous industry complexities. These complexities include ever changing governmental policies and socioeconomic changes in the population. The most current policy changing hospitals payment system is the Affordable Health Care Act in an attempt to control health care spending. Before strategies can be developed to improve revenue cycle management, one must understand the background of the industry.
Workplace harassment is unwelcome actions that are based on a person’s race, religion, color, and sex, and gender, country of origin, age, ethnicity or disability. The targets of the harassment are people who are usually perceived as “weaker” or “inferior” by the person who is harassing them. Companies and employers can also be guilty of workplace harassment if they utilize discriminatory practices against persons based on ethnicity, country of origin, religion, race, color, age, disability, or sex. These discriminatory practices have been illegal since the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Civil Rights Act of 1964), and have been amended to be more inclusive of other people who experience discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (The Civil Rights Act of 1991), and most recently, President Obama’s signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (Stolberg, 2009).