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. Horizontal violence in the nursing profession is not a new phenomenon and usually preserved for nursing students and novice nurses; however, seasoned nurses may experience this same abuse. An article put out by the American Nurses Association (ANA) in "The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing" (OJIN) documented in the study that bullying typically lasts longer than six months and may last for years (Rocker, 2008). Individuals that suffer prolonged workp... ... middle of paper ... ...oi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2012.01.001 Rocker, C. F. (2008, August 29). Addressing nurse-to-nurse bullying to promote nurse retention. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 13. http://dx.doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol13No03PPT05 Sellers, K., Millenbach, L., Kovach, N., & Yingling, J. K. (2009-2010, Fall/Winter). The prevalence of horizontal violencein New York state Registered Nurses [Journal]. Journal of the New York State Nurses Association, 20-25. Retrieved from http://0-web.ebscohost.com.skyline.ucdenver.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=08304246-c732-44b8-908e-fbbf965a863b%40sessionmgr198&hid=127 Yildirim, D. (2009). Bullying among nurses and its effects. International Nursing Review, 56(), 504-511. Retrieved from http://0-web.ebscohost.com.skyline.ucdenver.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=afde6a0b-57f2-469c-9f5c-efefed7eef55%40sessionmgr113&vid=16&hid=127
Nurse horizontal violence towards new nurses and nursing students includes methodical, unwelcome or unprovoked behaviors with the intent to upset, control, humiliate, harm, or segregate (Hutchinson, Vickers, Jackson, & Wilkes, 2006). Horizontal violence can be furtive and shrewd (such as withholding information or spreading gossip) as well as obvious and direct, such as reproaching in front of other staff, false complaints, or threatening body language (Hutchinson et al., 2006). Other forms of the experience, described both in nursing and non-nursing literature, include bullying, mobbing, intimidation, and aggression (Farrell, 2001). Bullies form cliques and engage in repetit...
Berry, P. A., Gillespie, G. L., Gates, D., & Schafer, J. (2012). Novice Nurse Productivity Following Workplace Bullying. Journal Of Nursing Scholarship, 44(1), 80-87. doi:10.1111/j.1547-5069.2011.01436.x
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
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
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.
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 horizontal violence.
Yildirim, D. (2009). Bullying among nurses and its effects. International Nursing Review, 56(4), 504-511. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19930081
Disruptive behaviors such as bullying, incivility, and horizontal/lateral violence are prevalent issues in the health care field. These behaviors not only create hostility among colleagues, but they also decrease safety and can increase cost of patient care. The affect disruptive behavior has on patient care and team morale are reasons for action against this issue. Disrespectful behavior violates the code of ethics for nurses, which are ethical standards set by the American Nurses Association (ANA) (Lachman, 2014). While disruptive behavior is a violation of ethical standards, it goes unnoticed in many health care settings.
According to the American Nurses Association (2015), "incivility can take the form of rude and discourteous actions, of gossiping and spreading rumors, and of refusing to assist a coworker. All of those are an affront to the dignity of a coworker and violate professional standards of respect. Such actions may also include name-calling, using a condescending tone, and expressing public criticism. The negative impact of incivility can be significant and far-reaching and can affect not only the targets themselves, but
Warren, Barbara Jones, PhD, RN, C.N.S.-B.C., P.M.H. (2011). Two sides of the coin: The bully and the bullied. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services, 49(10), 22-9.
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...
The author of this paper has a pretty good understanding of her strengths and weaknesses, and genuinely believes in people. She believes that positivity and encouragement work far better than incivility and punishment. With her career goal of returning to trauma services and becoming a trauma coordinator, the author hopes she can include healthy workplace education in her future trauma prevention program. She would like to use her position as a Trauma Coordinator to reach out to employees and the community to encourage a healthy workplace. With disease processes such as hypertension, autoimmune disorders, depression, anxiety, and PTSD associated with workplace bullying (Healthy Workplace Bill [HWB], 2016), the author feels this education is beneficial, and compliments trauma prevention. Furthermore, she would like to bring some of the tools from the Healthy Workplace Bill (Healthy Workplace Bill [HWB], 2016) to the nurse practice counsel, shared governance committees, and organizational leaders. She would like bullying to be considered a never-event, much like hospital-acquired infections. By employing some of the tactics proposed in the healthy workplace bill, the author of this paper believes she can make a
It has various negative effects which are persistent in nature, and the individual victim realizes the behaviour as bullying (Wilson, 2016). Bullying is associated with physical and psychological problems among nurses leading to absenteeism, poor performance, low job satisfaction, and increased turnover (Ganz, et al., 2015). The issue of bullying among nurses further affects the entire health care team including patient outcomes and health care costs due to the declining level of nurses’ performance (Becher & Visovsky, 2012). Although bullying exists in the nursing work place, they are silent in nature, and goes undetected (Becher & Visovsky,2012). Hence, identifying and managing workplace bullying needs efforts of individual facing bullying and support of the
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.
The purpose of this qualitative study is to present the history of this problem in nursing, raise awareness of the challenges associated with workplace bullying among nurses, and offer potential solutions. Bullying in nursing may be due...