Workplace Violence In The Healthcare Industry

Workplace Violence in the Healthcare Industry

Adetokunbo Adebayo

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing

Abstract

The climate of the healthcare industry, and of nursing in particular, is often a violent and dangerous one. Violence in the workplace is defined by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as “physically and/or psychologically damaging actions that occur in the workplace or while on duty” (“Incivility, Bullying, and Workplace Violence”). Healthcare professionals are often faced with workplace violence and as such must be trained on how to deal with these incidents. Incidents of violence are most prevalent among the nursing staff, psychiatric staff, and home health aides

In order to fully explore the topic of workplace violence and how it affects the healthcare industry, one must consider both the changes to the healthcare industry itself that violence has caused and the impacts the violence has on healthcare workers. “The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines workplace violence as violent acts directed toward persons at work or on duty,” which means that workplace violence in the healthcare industry would be violence against healthcare practitioners and their staff (Sharma & Sharma, 2016). The violence that occurs in this industry has led to the creation of training programs designed to prevent workplace violence. These programs are not the only consequence of workplace violence though, as it has not only had impacts on the healthcare industry, but on the lives of nurses as

NIOSH further defines workplace violence as “physically and/or psychologically damaging actions that occur in the workplace or while on duty” (“Incivility, Bullying, and Workplace Violence”). This means that workplace violence not only includes actual physical harm to the nursing staff, but may also include things such as bullying, humiliation, and/or incivility. Nurses are often targeted by patients, as they are the healthcare professionals who interact most frequently with patients. In a video presented by the American Nursing Association, they describe recommendations set forth in their position statement that include, “Setting a ‘zero tolerance’ policy, encouraging employees to report violent incidents, and developing a comprehensive violence prevention program” (The Hard Truth: Bullying and Workplace Violence in Health Care, 2015). It is easy to see that the nursing world has been greatly impacted by workplace violence and that the nurses in America are expected to take a proactive stance on the issue. However, in 2013, nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides still missed over 7,000 days of work as a result of violent injuries, with only a fraction of these injuries being unintentional (“Workplace Violence in