Lateral Violence in Nursing
Bridgett Byrd
Central Texas College
The nursing profession is no stranger to workplace violence. Violent displays of behavior can come down from those that hole managerial positions to subordinate staff through a top down hierarchy in a vertical manner. This can occur through such actions as with holding raises or promotions, unequal distribution of resources, unfair staffing assignments, among others. There is also nurse to nurse violence through interactions with peers of the same staff position. The display of lateral violence in nursing is an issue that is hurting the profession as a whole. Lateral violence is an unprofessional display of behavior from one nurse to another that is meant to intimidate. According to Tina Dimarino “researchers have found that the most common forms of lateral violence in nursing include nonverbal innuendo, verbal insults, gossiping, undermining, withholding information, sabotage, infighting, scapegoating, backstabbing, failure to respect privacy, and broken confidences.” This type of behavior is also termed horizontal violence, nurse to nurse, incivility or bullying (Dimarino, 2011).
The need for
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Being that students start school and their first job all excited with wanting to care for patients, it is hard to imagine that others would want to take that away. If caring and compassion for patients was kept front and center nurses would be lifting each other up, instilling hope in one another, educating and passing on knowledge to the next generation of nurses. It will take nurses collectively to stand up to bullies and say enough is enough through education, empowerment and follow through on
Police and prosecutors tend to downplay the violent assaults on health care workers unless someone is severely injured, even though 30 states have felony laws against it (Jacobson, 2014, p. 4). According to a descriptive study conducted by Lisa Wolf there were many instances in, which the legal, judicial system was unwilling to pursue charges against patients, or family members who assaulted nurses. Thus the focus on legislation to make an assault on health care workers a felony crime may have limited efficacy unless efforts are made to address society’s complacency toward violence against nurses (Wolf et al., 2014, p. 3). In Pennsylvania two house bill’s were introduced one in 2011 House Bill 1992.
There are some nurses who are not genuine and have a negative behavior such as those in the Bed Number Ten. “Within minutes, another nurse came in and said, All right, Sue, now let’s raise you up. I struggled to move then I remember. I just had a spinal tap. Don’t you get headaches if you get up? Oh, yes, she answered with alarm.
"Civility is an authentic respect for others that requires time, presence, willingness to engage in genuine discourse and intention to seek common ground (Clark, 2010). " Unfortunately I have come to learn that, incivility is a fairly common issue in nursing in regard to nurse-professor, nurse-nurse, nurse-physician, and nurse-resident relationships. I don't believe that it's always meant to be hurtful. Sometimes incivility occurs simply because of the fast-paced environments, long hours and high stressed environment. Regardless, it's inappropriate and unprofessional behavior. "
Organizational readiness for improvement or change in health care settings is vital for the successful implementation of new programs and health care practices (Hall & Roussell, 2014). After detailed conversations with the unit manager and registered nurses, it is clear there is a need for interventions targeted toward patient-to-patient assaults, as safety is a top priority for the patients in the unit. In addition, staff members state that there has been an increase in the number of patient-to-patient assaults in the inpatient psychiatric unit (2–3 incidents per month), and this poses a threat to staff and patient safety. In Hall and Roussel (2014), states that healthcare facilities must be viewed as a high-risk environment and available financial and human resources must be available to address safety issues and concerns (Wieczorek, Marent, Osrecki, Dorner, & Dür, 2015). The unit manager volunteered to provide assistance for the implementation of the program and worked with the doctoral student on scheduling a presentation of education/teaching interventions for staff members.
Great post! Lateral Violence/bullying is a very good concern and topic of discussion. I’m glad that your group have chosen this topic because it truly does need change. It makes it a very sensitive topic to discuss in the workplace because of fear of losing your job, causing conflict or the repercussions that may come for speaking out. Some nurses will leave while others may stick around and accept the behavior.
“While working at a hospital as a Registered nurse, I was being bullied every day at work I became withdrawn, severely depressed, I would break down and cry every day after work. It was a nightmare,” explained Nurse Jackie. Horizontal bullying should not be neglected it is a life-threatening problem affecting the healthcare. Nurse to nurse bullying in the workplace can have an impact on new nurses, the treatment of the patients, and lack of job satisfaction. Imagine being a nurse and additionally feeling nervous about taking care of a challenging patient or meticulously achieving all of the medical records.
1.Based on Chapter 11, what is your interpretation of violence in nursing? Nurses can experience violence from other nurses, other health professionals, patients, visitors, and strangers. To this day violence continues to be a major professional issue nurses face (Hockley, 2017). Violence does not only involve physical aspects, but nonphysical aspects like emotional and finical burdens.
Painted as everything from the naughty nurse, to the battle axe matron or the angel in a crisis they have seen it all. These stereotypes may seem like harmless fun, but they are patronizing, undermine the public image of nurses and call into question their professional
Many think that bullying is an issue that occurs more often with minors in a school setting, but horizontal violence in nursing negates this thought. Horizontal violence in nursing is best defined as “bullying that occurs between coworkers” (Granstra, 2015). This bullying cannot only negatively affect seasoned nurses, but also new graduate nurses that may lack confidence in their abilities as they are new to the field. Consequentially, this can
I worked as a Nurse’s Assistant and Secretary for 8 years. I started when I was 18 years old, working on a psychiatric unit. I learned to be mindful of my surroundings and to read people’s emotions and body language to prevent escalating a patient’s bad mood into a physical altercation. This may seem like an extreme example, but I have witnessed people that were unaware, or didn’t care how they approached the patient, and the patient responded in a belligerent manor.
Violence against healthcare providers is a significant problem that has been receiving growing attention. Incidents of workplace violence are experienced by nurses and physicians on a day-to-day basis, especially in emergency departments. The corollary of this phenomenon has become a significant matter due to the psychological stress it is placing on healthcare providers, hence affecting their efficiency and productivity. We may often undermine the consequences of workplace violence, but studies show that it may cause distress, apathy, rage, disappointment, helplessness, anxiety, self-doubt, and insecurity of healthcare workers. (Öztunç 360-365)Hence, their entire job performance is decreased and absenteeism is increased.
When looking at the function of professional nursing, the attitude, experiences, as well as factors such as demographics, social class, education, and values, can determine how the nurse will view violence in the workplace. These factors that have contributed to the development of the professional nurse can also determine how the nurse views and even reacts to workplace violence and aggression towards them. The qualities of the professional nurse and their background can determine how the human behavior from the patient is viewed and can lead to de-escalation or escalation of violent situations. The behavior of the patient can include cooperation, calmness, anxiety, aggression, or anger. Behaviors of aggression, anger, frustration, and acts of intimidation when patients are experiencing an illness can exacerbate stressful situations which can turn violent.
Conflict is an inevitable part of every work environment, arising when the parties involved disagree and feel a threat to one’s own goals or concerns. Workplace conflicts within the healthcare environment tend to be more complicated as they often involve ongoing, complex relationships that can be based in strong emotion. Understanding the types of conflicts that nurses commonly encounter and the response that occurs is vital for the nurse leader to understand. The Thomas-Kilmann conflict model for conflict management helps people understand how different conflict-handling styles affect interpersonal and group dynamics. In this model there are five ways to handle conflict.
I feel the same way you do. As also a new nurse I am always asking questions on things I can do as nurse espcially concerning patients rights. As a psych nurse I am always concern about not violating a persons right for anything. There is always some fear that I am not providing the things that patients needs or violating their rights. I am concern specially when I give medication for
Information regarding the reports such as research limitations, level of evidence, research method and design are included in the discussion and implications of nursing. The literature review found that nurse on nurse bullying does indeed effect nurses in a physical and emotional way as well as effecting the adequacy of patient care. Effects of Horizontal Violence in the Workplace on Nurses and Patient Care Introduction Nurses spend approximately 12 hours a day 3-4 times a week working in either a hospital, clinic, or some sort