Horizontal Violence in Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Horizontal Violence in Nursing - Essay Example Although many healthcare stakeholders are aware of rampant horizontal violence, many of them are oblivious of its extent. Ditmer (2010) provides an overview of the scope of horizontal violence among nurses, establishing that â€Å"75%† of nurses have experienced aggression, harassment and bullying during their careers. To further exacerbate such grim statistics, majority of such acts go unreported. Besides, such horizontal violence may not be interfered with a reported â€Å"40%† of leaders remaining passive or quiet when witnessing such acts (Ditmer, 2010). Several explanations have been provided for the cause and nature of horizontal violence. In certain situations conflict within the group arises and horizontal violence is a symptom of an underlying problem. The ultimate result is that horizontal violence persists in the nursing workplace and the individual nurses learn it as an expected behavior, being oblivious that it should not be part of their culture. As a resu lt the nurses are vilified for this and develop a low self-esteem, such that by the time they enter the nursing practice they are already negatively socialized to certain submissive roles. Horizontal violence such as â€Å"disruptive and unprofessional behavior† is allowed to enter due to two factors; through acts of omission; and new nurses’ deficient of formal instruction to handle conflicts and assert their rights. In the former case, it is noted that failure of the management to act even after observing manifestations of horizontal violence contributes to its pervading and perception as part of normal culture in nursing practice. In the latter case, new graduate nurses are observed to lack the necessary skills to deal with being victims of horizontal violence. Some of them also... This essay approves that further analysis will be through correlating data for the day and night shifts as well as registered nurses and technical nurses. Correlations will also be done according to age category of nurses in the work place: baby boomers, generation X and generation Y, with the view of establishing which group is most affected by horizontal violence since it is appreciated that generational differences exist in terms of how these groups act and react in the workplace. This report makes a conclusion that Horizontal violence is a widespread and pertinent issue despite being addressed by legal and healthcare policies. Literature is indicative that it is the result of powerlessness and marginalization of nurses at the workplace accompanied by laxity or disregard of its impact by the management. It has very serious consequences on the individual nurse and quality of patient care availed besides translating into massive losses whenever nurses quit the field. On an institutional level, it is argued that horizontal violence contributes to poor retention. Research evidence for this is limited, and thus justifies an inquiry into it. This study develops a correlational research design to be used to study whether there is a link between horizontal violence among nurses and hospital nurse retention in two medical-surgery units. A horizontal violence measuring tool whose reliability and validity has been tested is proposed for use in data collection after assur ing participant protection through the IRB and hospital management.