Addressing Lateral Violence Among Nurses: Tell Us Your Story
For the past 2 years as a part of a 3 year federal grant, Upstate AHEC has been raising awareness about “toxic behavior” in the workplace that impacts quality of care, patient safety and nurse satisfaction. We are shining the spotlight on this behavior known by several names such as lateral violence, disruptive behavior, horizontal hostility and bullying. No matter the name, the behavior is toxic and according to surveys of close to 2000 nurses, is impacting a majority of nurses in the upstate. What we have learned from the surveys:
93% of nurses have witnessed the behavior
86% have been victims of the behavior
The experienced nurse is most often the perpetrator
The novice nurse is most often the victim
The most common method of dealing with the behavior is to ignore it
We have also learned that lateral violence is not unique to nursing, that the majority of nurses are not perpetrators and that raising awareness and “shining the spotlight” on the negative behavior can be effective in eliminating it.
One powerful way to raise awareness and shine the spotlight is to tell our stories. If you have been a victim of lateral violence and would like to share your story please click on the link below which will take you to an anonymous survey. We may use the stories in our trainings and/or publications so please no names or identifying information. We want to hear not just the incident but also how you responded.
Thanks so much for helping us raise awareness and change the culture!
Dianne Jacobs,MSN,RN
Project Director
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=BYqsnHkFo3CPR32da2abKw_3d_3d
