LATERAL VIOLENCE AND NURSING

The effect of lateral violence on the victims can be significant. Co-workers who are victimized may experience fatigue or insomnia, stress, depression, shame or guilt, isolation, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, or even suicidal behaviour. The emergency department may lend itself to assertive and borderline aggressive behaviour because of the fast pace that requires quick decisions and multi-tasking. Nurses in the emergency department who engage in lateral violence may excuse this behaviour as the “nature of the beast.” Nurses might explain that they are too busy to be “touchy feely” or that they believe they need to let a new nurse see what it is really like in the emergency department. Perpetrators often justify their behaviour by saying “I really didn’t mean it,” “Everyone knows how I am when it’s busy,” or “I went back and apologized later” (personal conversations).

Moral distress is defined as “painful feelings and/or psychological disequilibrium that occurs when nurses are conscious of the morally appropriate action a situation requires, but cannot carry out that action because of institutional obstacles, lack of time, lack of supervisory support, exercise of medical power, institutional policy, or legal limits”. Moral distress may be apparent in the emergency department when not enough staff is available to care for high-acuity patients who are waiting to be admitted to the hospital. In addition, emergency nurses are encouraged to decrease turn-around times. This expectation may cause nurses to provide abrupt answers to patient questions or transfer patients to a hospital unit without ensuring that they have eaten recently. These actions may create feelings of moral distress for the nurse who would prefer to take the extra time to feed the patient or allow the family to arrive and be present for discharge instructions. Moral distress increases the risk for lateral violence, because the frustrated nurse may lash out against a newer or less assertive co-worker.

Primary Health Care and Nursing meeting will be visited by all the prestigious Health Care educators, Nursing Professionals,  researchers, postgraduates, business meanders, students under a solitary rooftop.

For more details visit:https://nursing.healthconferences.org/