Workplace Violence Against Nurses: Impacts, Interventions, and Recommendations NUR4032

Introduction

Nurse abuse is one of the current challenges affecting the discipline of nursing; it is physical and verbal aggression towards the nursing professionals in different health facilities. With violence experienced in a number of the employing areas being directed towards nursing professionals, or observed within the healthcare environments, staff health is jeopardized and organizational functioning is weakened.

This essay aims at evaluating the problem of violence against nursing professionals; the extent of the problem; the effects; as well as the stand of the nursing profession.

The essay will establish the general background of violence against the nurses, and how often the incidence occurs. It will then provide details about how such violence affects the psychological well-being, job satisfaction, and patient interactions of the nurses involved. After this, the current measures, actions that are being taken to deal with the violence will be explained. Finally, it will evaluate some of these measures critically and give recommendations on the future safety and support for nursing professionals.

Nature and Extent of Violence Against Nurses

Formally and informally, workplace violence against nurses in the healthcare setting has become a more identified and acknowledged problem, addressing both structural and environmental problems within the healthcare system. Such violence includes use of force, use of abusive languages and different forms of emotional harassment. A survey by the American Nurses Association in 2022 shows that many nurses go through such types of violence in their working lifetime. To be precise, over 70% of nurses are verbally abused, and 50% are physically assaulted at the workplace (ANA, 2022). Such high incidences call for the realization that the problem is well rooted and is prevalent in the society.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration also back this opinion. It reveals that medical personnel are at a higher vulnerability and risk of being attacked by violence than workers in any other industry area. OSHA has stated that health care employees are at a fourfold risk of being attacked than workers in other professions in the United States. The risk of workplace violence has been found to be higher in several attributes such as the high-stress level, dealing with emotionally hostile patients or families, and sometimes insufficient security in hospitals (Waldrop, 2023). All these manifestations of violence are systemic, which can be linked to the existing problems within the sphere of healthcare, such as insufficient safeguarding of patients and employees in healthcare facilities.

Effect on mental state of the nurses

The effect of violence on the psychological well-being of the nurses is dreadful and touches up on many aspects. Violent exposure may result in both immediate and long-term negative effects on mental health such as; anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Similar research work was conducted by Itzhaki et al. (2018), and the results showed that working under conditions of violence increased stress and emotional burnout in nurses than in other healthcare professionals. Emotional and psychological disturbances are some of the possible consequences of such occurrences; they may result in symptoms of PTSD. Ham et al. (2022) notes that of all nurses who have undergone workplace violence, more than one-third displays PTSD symptoms. The following is an analysis of self-reported prevalence of violence and its effects on the mental health of the nurses.

More importantly, violence against nurses having a negative impact on professionals, though leading to burnout that is associated with emotional exhaustion, decreased sense of accomplishment, and reduced effectiveness. From the study by Kobayashi et al. (2020), the authors found out that burnout is prevalent among healthcare workers, and has become exacerbated by violence. It is important to note that finding ways to treat these mental health problems is as important for the well-being of the nurses.

Impact on Job Satisfaction and Retention

This is possibly one of the most important issues within the sphere of nursing since violence influences job satisfaction, and thus employment stability. Del Carmen Prez-Fuentes et al. (2020) shows that violence increases, and job satisfaction decreases due to exposure to such violence among the nurses. Employees who work in the nursing industry that experience frequently targeted violence states show higher job dissatisfaction and expression of frustration which influences job performance levels. This dissatisfaction is a factor in increasing turnover rates that only worsens staffing shortages and will cause consequences for the quality of patient care.

According to (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, n.d.), healthcare organisations that are prone to violence have high turnover rates of personnel, meaning patients are served by different people at different times, and costs are likely to be high. The organizational consequences of the deterioration of job satisfaction and retention are not only relevant to be addressed for individual nurses. Measures for combating work-place violence should therefore be adopted as a way of improving the level of satisfaction of employees and lowering voluntary termination rates, thus promoting higher stability in health care organizations and higher standards of care to patients.

Impact on Patient Care

Violence against nurses has significant implications for patient care and safety. Saad et al. (2023) when nurses are exposed to violence, a decrease in the quality of care a clients may be observed is some cases. Violated nurses may have decreased wakefulness, impaired verbal communication, and an elevated probability of mistakes. These factors are potentially dangerous to the patient safety as well as put quality of the care offered at risk.

Mento et al. (2020) also reveal that patients experience the lowest satisfaction with care as well as poorer health status where violence with nurses occur in the healthcare facilities. Violences consequences are not only visible in the changing conditions of direct care but also in the outcomes of patient healing and health systems quality. Violence at healthcare facilities is thus an important matter for patient safety and quality of care, as well as public confidence in health care organizations.

Current Responses and Measures

Recognising the increasing problem of violent attacks on nurse, health care organisations have adopted several strategies aimed at increasing safety of staff. Zero-tolerance policies are required to be implemented (Al-Shaban et al., 2021). These are beneficial to establish expectations and promote the corporate culture towards safety in the setting of healthcare organizations. Yet, it should be understood that using zero-tolerance policies is a good start; however, their success largely depends on the proper implementation on the companys multiple levels and the support of all members of the organization (Fan et al., 2021).

Leadership training presented in relation to such aspects as de-escalation and conflict management is also widely used to prepare nurses for dealing with possible aggressive actions. Integrated and hostile-specific training can enhance nurses self-assurance in the written and verbal expression of zero tolerance and increased ability to manage reconcile aggressive behaviour and language. The effectiveness of the training in decreasing overall instances of workplace violence remains inconclusive depending on culture. Additional changes to organisation structures should also support training interventions, for instance through increasing security at workplaces, to eradicate the root causes of violence and create better safety conditions (George & Potter, 2023).

Measures and Recommendations of Country Strategies

Observations made from the attempts made show that this is an area that requires more elaborate approaches to curb violence against nurses. Despite the fact that the training programmes increases the nursing competencies, the violence does not necessarily decrease. This suggests that training alone cannot be effective, and that it must be incorporated within a multi-faceted approach which will involve organizational redesign and support (Zhang et al., 2020).

Possible measures to promote safety and decrease the level of violence are increasing security measures, for example staffing levels and other security-related measures. However, growing the availability and access to services that can help nurses with their mental health is also important when it comes to handling psychological effects of violence (Lee et al., 2020).

Valuable policy revisions, security enhancement, all-inclusive training, sufficient mental health, are some of the most crucial ways to eliminate violence on nurses. This is because by targeting and tackling these potential causes and putting into good use functioning prevention measures, it is possible to reduce add risks to the lives of the health care patients, employees and enhance the quality of the services that are being provided (Chakraborty et al., 2022).

Conclusion

Assaults toward the nurses in the health care settings are rampant with significant consequences in the awelfare of care providers, and clients. A review of studies in the present literature shows that this violence has severe effects on the nurses psychological health, job contentment, and stability, as well as patient care. Thus, numerous efforts such as policy against violence, staff trainings and others still remain issues when it comes to preventing violence at the workplace and helping employees who went through such circumstances. These need to be solved by means of holistically addressing the problem by improving security, training as well as mental health. Taking on the issue of violence is important for achieving the goal of creating a safer environment for nurses and nursing, which directly translates into enhanced quality of patient care within a framework of health care system and its sustainability.

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