Workplace Violence And Health Care

If those who witness horizontal violence taking place or if the nurse being targeted does not speak up, it can keep occurring until the situation starts to have a negative impact on the targeted nurse. The effects can start to show up in the nurse’s work and in patient satisfaction. It can also lead to the nurse leaving their hospital for a new hospital to work for and it can even lead to the nurse leaving the nursing profession for good. Some nurses deal with this type of stress by seeing it as a challenge that they must endure in order to be become hardy and resilient

Workplace violence is present in every nook and cranny of corporate America, affecting millions of Americans every year. Workplace violence is defined by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, OSHA, as any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. It ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide. In 2011, there were over 2 two million reports and claims of workplace violence, with 458 being homicides1. Workplace violence is at the forefront of everyone’s mind when a breaking news story is broadcast on the evening news, such as the recent shootings in Santa Cruz, California by a disgruntled ex-cop, and the

Literature that investigates the rates of lateral violence has confirmed that LV has been and currently still is prevalent in the nursing profession. A survey taken during the Upstate AHEC Lateral Violence Among Nurses Project by Jacobs and Kyzer (2010) revealed that 93 percent of nurses have witnessed lateral violence among coworkers, while 85 percent have been a victim of lateral violence. As can be seen by these percentages, lateral violence in nursing is very real and affects many of those who are identified as a nurse. Although these statistics are informative, it is critical to remember that they do not capture all incidents of LV in the nursing profession. Since these statistics come from reported incidents of lateral violence in nursing, there may be additional incidents that were not reported. Therefore, the rates of

work relationships in nursing to find a solution. The result of that investigation stated that horizontal violence in nursing is commonplace and experienced by nursing students, nurses with limited experience, and seasoned nurses equally.

Workplace violence commonly occurs between nurses, between nurses and patient, between nurses and families, or even between nurses and physician. Violence from relatives and friends of patients may occur as a result of frustration with a perceived lack of care or communication (Roche et.al. 2010). According to Woefle and McCaffrey there two consequences of violence (physical and psychological) for nurses and organization. Physical by the mean nurses can possibly experience weight loss, cardiac palpitation, stress, hypertension and irritable bowel syndrome. Psychological by the means of being mentally drain of nurses that can cause danger in giving a quality care.

Horizontal violence is not a topic that medical faculties discuss on a day-to-day basis, but it is an enormous problem within the health care system. In this research the author looks at bulling from a registered nurse (r.n.) aspect .The effects on patient centered care can be detrimental for patients and r.n.’s. The work place needs to be a safe place for not only the patients but also the employees. With the rise of new graduate nurses who are employed by the medical facilities, they too are starting to face horizontal violence within the first year on the job, which leads to retention of nurses in the medical field. Horizontal violence will continue to arise if nurses do not stand up to bullying and empower victims to speak up on

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.

Moreover, another type of violence which nurses experience is horizontal violence. Horizontal violence is described as “hostile, aggressive, and harmful behavior by a nurse or group of nurses toward a co-worker or group of nurses via attitudes, actions, words, and behaviors” (Becher & Visovsky, 2012, p. 210). Horizontal violence not only involves nurse-nurse violence but includes nurse-physician and nurse-supervisor violence. The perpetrator displays behaviors associated with horizontal violence which may include refusing to lend assistance, criticizing, intimidation, gossiping, name-calling, and ignoring (Becher & Visovsky, 2012). The American Nurses Association sets the expectations for nursing standards. According to the American Nurses

Lateral violence in the nursing profession obviously affects the nurse or nurses being targeted greatly. It is thought that nurses display this violence because in their careers they feel as though they do not have enough power and seem to be near the bottom of the healthcare team hierarchy. As a result, one often sees nurses take this resentment out on one another (Roberts, 2015). When one’s perception is that he or she has little power what will his or her most likely reaction be? Blair (2013) states that a lot of nurses demonstrate lateral violence in some form as a means of feeling like they have obtained some power. Nurses should be taking what power they do have and using it in a positive manner rather than belittling colleagues. Nursing entails a lot of teamwork and interaction among each other and it would be a shame to allow lateral violence

Horizontal violence is characterized by the presence of series of undermining incidents overtime, as opposed to one isolated conflict in the workplace (Jackson, Flirtko, & Edenborough, 2007). I believe that being a nurse is one of the most rewarding careers. At the same time it is very challenging work physically and emotionally. When faced with horizontal violence in a workplace; it makes it very difficult for the nurses to provide a focused patient care especially working under mostly male physicians and being looked down upon at times. Cherished nursing characteristics, such as sensitivity and caring are viewed as less important or even negative when compared to those of medical practitioners, who often are seen as the central culture in health care (Woelfle & McCaffrey).

Thesis • Horizontal violence among nurses reduces the quality of care patients receive and influences whether students remain in the nursing profession based on clinical experiences during placement. • The Canadian Nurses Association (2005) defines horizontal aggression “as aggressive behaviour that one registered nurse commits against another in the workplace.” • Tolerance of horizontal violence is connected with hierarchical nature of abuse and continues to be unreported and overlooked because in many incidents the perpetrator involved is a supervisor, nurse manager or charge nurse. “In order to succeed, [nurses] must accept that their role is defined by those with power and authority (pitts, 1985).

Nurses that worked in psychiatric hospitals reported to have experienced physical and/or verbal assault almost three times more (172, 36.8%) than nurses working in general hospitals (58, 15.5%) (Shiao et al., 2010). The annual incidence of sexual harassment with physical contact, verbal harassment with sexual content, non-sexual physical violence and verbal threat and abuse was much higher among nurses in psychiatric hospitals and 35.3% of nurses in psychiatric hospitals felt threatened of being attacked in the past week (16.5% in general hospital) (Shiao et al., 2010). Limitations to the study included: since the study was performed in state-owned hospitals in Taiwan, the study may not be generalized to other settings such as private-owned hospitals and the researchers asked the participants to recall an experience of an assault in the past 6 months, which might not have been recalled accurately. The researchers concluded that increasing number of experiences of assaults increased the nurses feeling of threat for potential attacks, which affected their quality of life and job performance so measures need to be implemented to prevent workplace violence, especially in psychiatric hospitals.

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.

Workplace violence (WPV) has been an increasing problem for many years, but it is hitting the healthcare profession hardest.(1) A crime survey done in 2014 by the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) found that violent crimes in the US healthcare system increased by 25% from 2012 to 2013.(2) Nearly 24,000 assaults in the work environment occur every year, with nearly 70-75% occurring to healthcare providers alone.(3, 4) Due to this increased risk of assault while working, healthcare workers are nearly 4 times as likely to need time off of work due to an injury caused by workplace violence than any other cause (i.e. illness, family leave, etc).(3) In a 2001 document from the United States Bureau of Justice, it was reported that 1.62% of physicians were assaulted (16.2 assaults per 1,000), 2.19% of nurses were assaulted (21.9 assaults per 1,000 nurses), and 0.85% of other healthcare workers (with varying job titles) were assaulted (8.5 assaults per 1,000 employees).(5) In 2011, the United States Bureau of Justice measured the workplace violence rate for nurses to be 3.9% (3.9 assaults per 1,000), almost doubling the numbers from 2001 in just 10 years.(1) The United States Bureau of Justice also reported that of the 100 fatalities that occurred in the workplace of healthcare and social service employees in 2013, 27 of the fatalities were due to violent attacks and assaults.(4)

Several models and concepts arose in preventative measures to workplace violence in nursing. One conceptual model, according to Covert Crime at Work, is “a conceptual model derived from 370 surveys show working conditions conducive to bullying, thus helping to identify risks early and to prevent unhealthy environments from developing.” After recognition of these research and studies, organizations such as Occupations Safety and Hazard Association, American Nurses Associations, and etc, have implemented guidelines to prevent workplace violence in nursing.