Tough Love Lessons: Lateral Violence among Hospital Nurses

Abstract

Background: Workplace violence is a growing social problem among many professions, but it particularly affects the health sector. Studies have mainly focused on evaluating user violence toward health professionals, with less attention being paid to other sources of conflict, such as co-workers themselves. There are different manifestations of this violence in what has been called a context of tolerated or normalized violence among co-workers. However, its effects are far from being tolerable, as they have an impact on general health and job satisfaction and contribute to burnout among professionals. Based on this idea, and following the line of the previous literature, nursing staff are a population at high risk of exposure to workplace violence. For this reason, the present study aims to evaluate exposure to lateral violence or violence among co-workers in nursing staff in public health services and the relationship of this exposure with some of the most studied consequences. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional associative study was carried out in which scales of workplace violence (HABS-CS), burnout (MBI-GS), job satisfaction (OJS), and general health (GHQ-28) were applied to a sample of 950 nursing staff from 13 public hospitals located in the southeast of Spain. (3) Results: The results show that nursing staff have a high exposure to violence from their co-workers, which is more common in male nurses. Greater exposure is observed in professionals with between 6 and 10 years of experience in the profession, and it is not characteristic of our sample to receive greater violence when they have less experience or are younger. A positive correlation is observed with high levels of burnout and a negative correlation with general health and job satisfaction. (4) Conclusions: The results of this work contribute to increasing the scientific evidence of the consequences of a type of workplace violence frequent among nursing staff and to which less attention has been paid in relative terms to other types of prevalent violence. Organizations should be aware of the importance of this type of workplace violence, its frequency and impact, and implement appropriate prevention policies that include the promotion of a culture that does not reward violence or minimize reporting. A change of mentality in the academic environment is also recommended in order to promote a more adequate training of nursing staff in this field.

Users' Perception of Violence and Conflicts With Professionals in Primary Care Centers Before and During COVID-19. A Qualitative Study

“…Workplace violence in the health sector can happen both between colleagues (lateral violence), as well as in hierarchical order or from superiors to other subordinate workers (horizontal violence) and from users to professionals, the latter being one of the most studied ( 10 – 12 ).…”

Violencia Laboral Y Su Efecto en Enfermeras a Nivel Hospitalario: Una Revisión Sistemática

“…Con respecto a los factores de riesgo y protectores frente al mobbing (Tabla 3), en la presente revisión se visualizó que la edad, la antigüedad, la experiencia laboral, el sexo y la unidad hospitalaria en la que se trabaja (10,11,12,14,17,20,21) tienen gran peso en la exposición de la persona a este problema. Asimismo, el sentirse capacitado para la profesión o con mayor experiencia laboral se relaciona con una menor percepción de acoso laboral (25) .…”

Sources of Conflict and Prevention Proposals in User Violence Toward Primary Care Staff: A Qualitative Study of the Perception of Professionals

“…Thus, this definition includes different behaviors such as physical aggression, verbal abuse, intimidation, harassment, and sexual, racial or psychological harassment ( 3 ). The perpetrator of workplace violence can be either from outside the workplace (clients/patients and companions) or inside the workplace (supervisors and other co-workers) ( 4 , 5 ). In general terms, there has been an exponential increase in workplace violence, with around 25% of professionals being exposed, and considering health service personnel, among all professionals, as most at risk of suffering violence ( 6 – 8 ).…”