Lateral Violence in Nursing Bridgett Byrd Central Texas College The nursing profession is no stranger to workplace violence. Violent displays of behavior can come down from those that hole managerial positions to subordinate staff through a top down hierarchy in a vertical manner. This can occur through such actions as with holding raises or promotions, unequal distribution of resources, unfair staffing assignments, among others. There is also nurse to nurse violence through interactions with peers of the same staff position. The display of lateral violence in nursing is an issue that is hurting the profession as a whole. Lateral violence is an unprofessional display of behavior from one nurse to another that is meant to intimidate. According to Tina Dimarino “researchers have found that the most common forms of lateral violence in nursing include nonverbal innuendo, verbal insults, gossiping, undermining, withholding information, sabotage, infighting, scapegoating, backstabbing, failure to respect privacy, and broken confidences.” This type of behavior is also termed horizontal violence, nurse to nurse, incivility or bullying (Dimarino, 2011). The need for …show more content…
Being that students start school and their first job all excited with wanting to care for patients, it is hard to imagine that others would want to take that away. If caring and compassion for patients was kept front and center nurses would be lifting each other up, instilling hope in one another, educating and passing on knowledge to the next generation of nurses. It will take nurses collectively to stand up to bullies and say enough is enough through education, empowerment and follow through on