Workplace Violence In Health Care Essay

Imagine being a newly graduated nurse and landing a job on your dream unit. There is this one nurse who likes to taunts the new nurses. You began to realize that she does things to make you uneasy and you began to feel like the target of workplace bullying. Horizontal Violence has become a newly coined termed to further define the concept of bullying in the workplace. According to Becher and Visovsky (2012), Horizontal Violence is described as “an act of hostility that creates an undesirable work environment that weakens teamwork in the clinical setting”. Managing bullying is the regular assessment of exposures of violence in healthcare facilities. As a junior nursing student I gravitated toward this topic because I will be graduating soon

Nursing violence can be misunderstood because it is more than just the physical aspect of violence but there is a nonphysical component that can affect an individual’s emotional or psychological well-being. (Huston, 2014, pg. 149) There is a discrepancy between the interdisciplinary healthcare workforce and nurses should be considered full partners with physicians and other health professionals. (Foundations, 2011, pg. 222) There are many types of violence in nursing that can occur from other nurses, patients, managers, visitors, and physicians Nurse to nurse violence is commonly referred to as horizontal violence. (Huston, 2017, pg151) Horizontal violence are behaviors that hinder nursing job satisfaction, impact job performance and put a lot of pressure on the nurse. According to the Joint Commission “intimidating and disruptive behaviors” can facilitate medication errors, lower patient satisfaction and lead to adverse patient outcomes. (Lachman, 2014) There is no singular solution to this problem and people have the right to work in a safe and healthy environment – regardless of setting. Victims need proper support and the offenders need to have discipline in order to correct this issue. Based on the article, Impact of Workplace of Workplace Mistreatment on Patient Safety Risk and Nurse-Assed Patient Outcomes, suggest that organizations should have a zero tolerance policy and to

Healthcare workers suffer the most when it comes to workplace violence. Violence in the workplace can have major effects on the victim such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorders. It can also lead to many emotional behaviors such as feeling sad, angry, disgust or fear felt by the victim. These emotions can have an influence on work functioning. Violence in the healthcare work is a major issue and is constantly growing than any other work field. “Healthcare workers are 16 times more at risk of experiencing violence from patients or clients than other service workers” (Lanctôt, N., & Guay, S. 2014). The most common abuse seen in the healthcare work is verbal abuse ranging from 22 to 90%, and the least being physical assault ranging

Workplace incivility affects our everyday interactions, professional nursing relationships and our organizations. It is important to be aware of incivility to address it. Incivility in the workplace doesn’t have to be a major event, but it may be little things daily that can make a huge impact. This affects the employee which impacts productivity and patient care. Employee turnover rates, job dissatisfaction, and poor workplace environments can be attributed to incivility. Employees may feel as though they are unable to report incivility due to retribution or loss of employment. It is time for people that need help to be courageous and speak up. Incivility in the work environment needs to stop.

A study was done to view just how much horizontal violence could affect patient safety and it was found that there was an increase in patient falls and a delay in care due to nurses not communicating to one another or not wanting to help a fellow coworker when asked

In contemporary society, people are capable to become violent regardless of where they come from or where they stand in society. Anyone is susceptible to violence. Societies are characterized by people living together in a more or less ordered community. The human mind is characterized by its ability to control one’s actions and thoughts. However, such control can vanish if encountered with situations that are extraordinarily stressful. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, we are able to see this type of behavior. This book proves how violent a group of boys can become when they are trapped on an island without any adult supervision. They will have to form an ordered society to maintain the democratic system they had back in England.

Throughout the world, violence has occurred in some form in each individual’s life since the beginning of time. Violence is any action, inaction, or structural arrangement that results in physical or nonphysical harm to one or more animals. There are three types of violence to classify the act, which is Institutional, Interpersonal, and Structural. Within each type of violence are specific categories that occur, such as family, religion, educational, corporate, and even economical violence.

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.

In this paper, the term “structural violence” will be defined and characterized. The term “structural violence” was coined by a medical anthropologist named Paul Farmer who created a list of components which outline and represent the term. By doing so, he depicts how it has manifested in the world and provides examples of real life experiences surrounding structural violence. A single event of structural violence will be revealed to demonstrate how the concept can be applied to contexts around the world. Structural violence is a worldwide issue that is unarticulated on in media. Structural violence is characterized by inequity, social inequality, and suppression of the situation.

Slavery was formally abolished in the 19th century, but has it really been abolished? Dolores Huerta in her article “Farmworkers and Slavery” argues that slavery still persists today and one of its modern forms is farm work. Huerta claims that farmworkers are not socially protected by the government and work and live in brutal, slave like conditions. In addition, Huerta states that the concept of violence needs to be broadened to include the harm faced by those who are disadvantaged or discriminated against. I totally agree with the author that our society is plagued by different forms of slavery and nonphysical violence.

In Pennsylvania two house bill’s were introduced one in 2011 House Bill 1992. The bill was referred back to committee and was reintroduced in October of 2013 as House Bill 1746. This bill was referred to as the “Nurse Violence Prevention Act.” The goals and objectives of the bill require Pennsylvania hospitals and other health care facilities to take pro-active steps to protect nurses and other healthcare workers from violence on the job. The bill will require hospitals to assess the security risks in their facilities, find ways to create a safer workplace and help victims of violence report incidents. This bill was designed to help facilities develop strategies to address it’s own safety risks, such as; training level of security personnel, building design and lighting, staffing levels, and a hospital culture of safety (Cong. Rec., 2011).

In order to prevent such criminal acts from happening in the hospital setting, there are many actions that hospitals should take to reduce the risk of violence. When hiring hospital staff, there should be investigation of each applicant’s background. This is done by administering criminal background checks as well as drug tests. Employers should also do reference checks to see if previous supervisors and coworkers would recommend the applicant for the position. They can also provide feedback about their personal work experiences with the applicant as well as the applicant’s work

Violence is the use of physical force to damage people or property, it is able to cause physical suffering to people we love and those who experience it directly, as well as emotional sorrow to such individuals, families, and even at workplaces like school, communities or society, all are harmed by violence. The Tough Guise two, explains that violence is a social and health problem that often occurred by men which proceeds in many forms of power and strength. For example, some depressing violent that committed by men are family violence, which often stated as domestic abuse or child mistreatment. All these things begin with the abuse of power or powerful than the abuser such as the act of sexual violence, which includes rape. Community violence,

Hermann, M. (2014, April 29). I am a Nurse – National Nurses Week. [video file].

Nurses who are victims of bullying might take more sick days, look for opportunities from other organizations and abandon their occupation. Absenteeism from work caused by horizontal bullying is increasing. Many nurses do not have the encouragement or the capability necessary to manage with bullying and just fail to come to work in order to avoid the experience, mainly if they are aware that they are going to be teamed up with a “bully” for that certain shift. Absenteeism increase to costs that are not necessary for the organizations and adds a burden to the remaining staff, resulting to an increase turnover and nurse disengagement. While interning at the Miami Jewish Health Systems, the report shows about 150 nurses who quit at the same time due to horizontal bullying. That situation affected the organization to the insufficient of excellent nurses available to care for patients and have an effect on those who continued working in a troubling work environment. Granstra (2015) researched that “Bullying results in increased turnover when nurses choose to leave the organization instead of remaining in a workplace where they are unhappy” (p.