Nurses encounter various challenges in the workplace. One of the most alarming trends is that they often become the victims of physical violence. It should be kept in mind that healthcare settings account for about 60 percent of all violent assaults that occur in various American workplaces (Gates, Gillespie, & Succop, 2011, p. 59). Additionally, more than 50 percent of nurses report that they suffered from physical abuse, at least once (Gates et al., 2011, p. 60). In turn, this tendency makes nurses even more vulnerable to the effects of stress. Moreover, they are likely to feel dissatisfied with their jobs. This paper is aimed at reviewing the scholarly articles that can illustrate the origins of this problem and its impacts on the experiences …show more content…
Certainly, some of these causes cannot be eliminated by nurses or even hospital administrators. For instance, one should mention the characteristics of patients who may be profoundly affected by physical pain. Similarly, their relatives inevitably struggle with intense emotional suffering. Nevertheless, in many cases, it is possible to reduce the risk of violence. Much attention should be paid to the efficiency of policies adopted in the hospital. There are several interventions that healthcare organizations should consider. In particular, it is necessary to reduce the waiting time in hospitals. This improvement is critical to alleviating the stress that patients and their relatives may experience. One should concentrate on emergency departments because physical violence is more widespread in these areas. Hospital administrators need to take several steps to achieve this goal. In particular, they should simplify registration procedures. For instance, patients can be registered directly at their bedsides. This step can remove bureaucratic barriers that often make patients very irritable. Furthermore, it is vital to ensure that the hospital is adequately staffed because the shortage of personnel can lead to the conflicts between patients and medical
Thomas, S. P., & Burk, R. (2009, July–August). Junior nursing students’ experiences of vertical violence during clinical rotations. Nursing Outlook, 57, 226–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2008.08.004
Mr. Herserg a 73 year old male, has mild dementia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and he needs oxygen on a regular basis. He recently moved into the nursing home 6 months ago after he could no longer care for himself. He has an oxygen tank that supplies him with oxygen. His daughter Rachael, a 45 years old comes by to visit him on a regular basis. He used to work as a civil engineer until he retired at 65 years old. He has recently been diagnosed with Delirium. In his nursing home, the workers are under a lot of pressure to get everything done for everyone on the floor. Mr. Herserg says the staffs are very mean to him and when he tells the staff that he would like to go for a walk, he is given medication to calm him down so that the workers can tend to everyone else. The staff yells at him and talks to him like a child, whenever he asks for help to go to the washroom. Mr.
Aggressive behaviors can be displayed in form of emotional, verbal or physical abuse, sarcastic remarks, unreasonable criticism, ignoring or withholding important information. Workplace violence leads to disrupted communication within the health care team, which, in turn puts the quality of nursing care and clients’ safety at risk. Decreased level of job satisfaction of workers in violent environment leads to increased turnover of nurses, resulting in understaffing and reduced quality of health care services. The victims of workplace violence report emotional exhaustion fear of coming to work, anxiety and depression; they are often pushed to leave the job or, even, the nursing profession. Research indicates that workplace violence is often left unreported; therefore, it is important to implement effective measures on prevention and elimination of workplace violence. Educational programs are essential to promote knowledge and understanding among nurses about workplace violence and strategies for workplace violence prevention. Health care organizations should be guided by established policy which highlights the responsibility of all leaders and employees to be accountable for workplace behavior, and implement a procedure on reporting, documenting and addressing the incidents of workplace violence. Organizations need to turn against horizontal violence, educate employees, and foster a healthy workplace environment which is safe for clients and
Thomas, S. P., & Burk, R. (2009, July–August). Junior nursing students’ experiences of vertical violence during clinical rotations. Nursing Outlook, 57, 226–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2008.08.004
Horizontal violence is psychological harassment that creates hostility in the workplace between two nurses or a nurse and another healthcare professional (Ditmer, 2010). The idea that horizontal violence exists in nursing is a phenomenon that is as ironic in the healthcare field that is supposed to be a ground for empathy, compassion and humanity. It is common yet many find it difficult and distressing to address. This harassment is usually presented in different ways including both aggressive along with disruptive behaviour, bullying, verbal abuse, humiliation, gossiping, threats, withholding information, and not properly explaining or training the processes (Ditmer, 2010, p. 9). As a nursing student, I have experienced horizontal violence numerous times whether in academics or in the clinical areas. Hence, this topic is important to me as I have experienced it first hand and important to nursing leadership as well because “leadership sets the scene, the attitudinal agenda, for a faculty or hospital.”( Scherbakova, 1995). Nursing leaders play an important role in managing and halting horizontal violence. This paper aims to explore the phenomenon that is horizontal violence, define and identify what constitutes horizontal violence in academics and clinical areas, its effects and the solutions to stop horizontal violence.
...verbal, sometimes physical abuse from doctors. Nurses are hired to take care and protect patients, but cannot even protect themselves. Boundaries should be set Jennifer Uman for the nurses, by the doctors so there would not be any confusion when told what to do. There should be a clear understanding between the responsibilities of a doctor and their nurses. Ultimately, these two people work hand in hand to heal, and be a blessing to others. There should not be any mistreatment between the doctors and nurses, but loyalty and kindness instead. "Instead of boundary disputes and substitution squabbles effort could be directed towards capitalizing on the wealth and skills that all professionals can bring to bear on solving health problems. This fresh approach to the division of labor puts the patient at the centre for the first time" (Smith, 2005).
The problem is that workplace bullying is affecting the nursing profession at Deer’s Head Hospital Center in Salisbury, Maryland. The Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organization emphasize the point that more than 50% of nurses report being a victim of abuse at work and more than 90% stated that they had witnessed abusive behavior (Olender-Russo, 2009).
The profession of nursing is presumed compassionate and caring; however, nursing can be a toxic environment for the nursing student, the novice nurse as well as the experienced nurse. History shows that nurses have been subjected to physical, verbal, and emotional abuse simply related to the nature of the job. A major source of the verbal abuse comes from patients, families, physicians, other healthcare disciplines and sadly other nurses. Nurse on nurse abuse is also called horizontal violence. Horizontal violence is defined as a consistent hidden pattern of behavior in which the perpetrator inflicts control, diminishes, or devalues peers or groups which endangers their health or safety. Bullying is defined as a threat to a professional status, threat to personal standing, isolation, overworking, placing undue pressure upon, or failure to give credit for an achievement (Hinchberger, 2009). Research on horizontal violence has shown that such abuse is destructive and threatens the existence of a supposed caring and nurturing profession especially when the bully is a nurse. This paper will focus on the research reviewed concerning horizontal violence and bullying as well as how these issues affect the nurse's health and wellness, patient safety, quality of care, and nursing shortages.
Chances are that most individuals at points in their life have interacted with nurses, whether it is when entering a hospital, getting blood drawn from a clinic, or even attending a yearly check-up at your physician. The point is that nurses are vital to the healthcare system. Their work expands from numerous locations, including local hospitals, schools, and even military camps where they often find themselves being the first health care provider that sick people first tend to see. Nurses, however do tend to face a greater amount of issues and challenges in the workplace and in some cases these challenges and issues may not even be easily visible to us. Nurses face challenges in regards to the lack of respect they receive as a professional
The inhuman experience which I along with my brother experienced in the city based hospital, provoked me to voice against the health care system of the country. The growing demand of the emergency service has hardly affected the service providers. With the increase of the population the government should increase the number of hospitals or increase the number of staffs in a hospital so that the patients in distress do not have to wait. An heart patient, or an accident patient have very little time to survive if they do not get the medication immediately. The role of the emergency nurse is to attend to the patient immediately and save life. In the present condition when the situation is so grim, it is really strange to find out the health care providers are changing their approaches tow...
The U.S. Department of Labor provides information to companies regarding workplace violence on how to assess threats in various settings as well as prevention plans and programs (U.S. Department of Labor, 2014). It is possible that Maria may be exhibiting aggressive behavior towards her colleagues and supervisors if she believes she is being discriminated against or feels a lack of support from management. In that case, management should assist Maria in feeling valued and supported by exploring her perspective and seek personal assistance for her, if necessary. Companies can assist their staff in improving their health, maintaining safety at work, and increasing productivity amongst employees by looking into assistance programs. These programs include employee assistance and family support services, work and life solutions, and clinical health services (Federal Occupational Health,
Workplace violence is real and can be unpredictable. However, a manager can prepare his employees ahead with increased awareness, education, updating policy against the violence, and instituting preventive measures. As described in the case study, Sandra, RN was injured by an aggressive patient as she tried to defuse the situation with the other staff. Apparently, the agitated patient struck Sandra with a chair when she turned her back from him. Consequently, additional help was summoned to restrain the violent patient and treat Sandra’s injuries.
I had never had this type of training before, so I was immediately interested in learning about workplace violence. With this training, I was able to learn about the different types of workplace violence and use critical thinking skills for scenarios on how to de-escalate inappropriate or violent situations. After we completed this training, my nursing class had to post in our online discussion forum about our own personal experiences with workplace violence, what we learned from the required educational course, and what we would have done differently after receiving the training. While I was thinking of what to put down for my own experience for the discussion post, I realized how significant workplace violence is, especially in the health care setting. I knew I have been involved personally at work or during clinical with aggressive, agitated, or violent patients, but I did not associate it with the term ‘workplace violence’. Like many nurses today, workplace violence is unfortunately viewed as part of the job. After I received this training and learned about how prevalent workplace violence is, I knew I wanted to elaborate on it and do more research in order to bring light to a serious issue that has not had the recognition it
Newman, M., Sime, M. & Corcoran-Perry, S. (1991). The focus of the discipline of nursing.
According to the Department of Labor in the United Sates (n.d.), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) stated that workplace violence is any acts or threats that are physical violence, harassment, intimidation or any other threatening disruptive behaviors that happened in the working place. Workplace violence can be ranged from threat and verbal abuse to physical coercion, assault and even homicide, influencing and including employees, customers and visitors. For instant, a study in Ghana on the implication of workplace violence on causing the nurses' intent to emigrate from year 2013 to year 2014 has been carried out. From the result of the study, it showed that higher percentages of nurses who have experienced violence are more likely than who were not involved in such incidents to have intention to emigrate (Boafo, 2016). Thus, this condition has led to lacking of nurse working in the local hospitals, especially in the low and middle income countries.