Lateral Violence and the Importance of Self-Esteem to the Nurses - Essay Example

Many theories have been put forward to explain the phenomena in nursing but low self-esteem plays a major role in perpetrating lateral violence. This paper discusses lateral violence in nursing.

In the nursing profession, Kramer (1974) defines lateral violence as unsuitable behavior or aggression between fellow nursing colleagues. Lateral violence occurs between nurses working on the same level of the nursing hierarchy. A nurse who uses this kind of violence usually intends to inflict psychological pain on the other colleague. The violence manifests itself differently and Griffin (2004) identified ten forms of lateral violence including non-verbal innuendo, withholding information, verbal affront, undermining activities, infighting, and sabotage. In addition, scapegoating, backstabbing, broken confidences, and failure to respect privacy are other forms of lateral violence between nurses (Griffin, 2004).

Lateral violence is a serious problem in nursing and many research studies indicate an increasing trend of the vice in health care institutions. A study conducted by the Institute of Medicine (2004) established that 65% of the nurses in United States healthcare institutions often observed lateral violence behaviors in their colleagues. Moreover, 18% of the nurses admitted to perpetrating lateral violence against their colleagues, while 78% acknowledged that the problem was very serious among nursing coworkers. Lateral violence was also reported among interdisciplinary nursing members with 57% admitting that it was a very serious challenge ( Institute of Medicine (2004).

Lateral violence between nurses has various repercussions in any healthcare working environment. One of the major effects includes undermining communication and teamwork efforts, which leads to a lack of coordination at work and poor decision-making. Consequently, these effects enhance professional disengagement, job dissatisfaction, increased turnover, and absenteeism, which reduce their performance and productivity in the workplace. In this case, patients pay the heaviest price of lateral violence because they receive poor services that expose them to greater health and safety risks (Stanley, 2010).

According to Longo and Sherman (2007), lateral violence distracts the cognitive abilities of nurses undermining their concentration at work, and leading to increased injuries and errors. Moreover, Griffin (2004) notes that the affected nurses suffer from heightened psychological and physical problems that expose their patients to greater risks. According to Stanley (2010), 67% of nurses in an Australian hospital admitted to making errors when angry about an aggression incident. Kramer (1974) attributes lateral violence to increased nurse turnover in the Unites States’ healthcare institutions. This trend imposes a heavy economic burden on healthcare institutions. A study conducted by Stanley (2010) in United States acute care hospitals established that the turnover expense of one registered nurse cost the institutions from$62,000 to $67,000. In 2007, Stanley (2010) established that the turnover costs of one registered nurse in the country ranged from $82,000 to $88,000 in the whole year. The costs represented a 32% increase in 5 years, from 2002 to 2007.

Researchers attribute lateral violence in nursing to various factors. Griffin (2004) argues that aggression results from oppressed group behavior. The profession demands a lot from the nurses and yet they are not given enough powers to control their work environment. Consequently, the nurses project their frustrations to coworkers in reaction to their failure to address the stressing factors (Griffin, 2004). Lateral violence has also been regarded, as a gender issue that arises from the fact that 94.5% of all nurses are women and the rest are males (Longo & Sherman, 2007). This theory holds that women are not socialized to accept their competence, and as a result, they believe that they are not strong or smart like men. In this case, women believe that their role is to serve men. However, the profession requires them to be assertive and engage their male partners on equal levels of professional knowledge and power. When female nurses lack social competence, a build-up of stress and frustration occurs, which is vented to the coworkers (Institute of Medicine, 2004).

Conclusion
In summary, theories explaining lateral violence, underline the importance of self-esteem to the nurses to alleviate lateral violence. According to Longo and Sherman (2007), self-esteem is both subjective and constructed. This implies that individual experiences and how a person regards himself or herself about other people’s perceptions play a critical role in enhancing or undermining self-esteem. In the nursing profession, healthy self-esteem is reflected by empathy, delivering holistic and personalized care to patients in addition to establishing good interpersonal relationships with patients and coworkers (Longo & Sherman, 2007). Training nursing students in universities and colleges play a great role in enhancing or destroying their self-esteem. Kramer (1974) noted that bullying nursing students by instructors undermined their self-image as nurses and as people. This results in the building up of frustrations and feelings of powerlessness that are transferred to the working places. Read More