Workplace Violence in Healthcare: Patient Safety and Healthy Work

This presentation addresses the critical issue of workplace violence in healthcare settings. It examines the various types of violence, including threats, assaults, and disruptive behaviors, and their detrimental effects on patient safety and the overall work environment. The presentation emphasiz...Read More

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STUDENT NAME:
STUDENT ID:
TOPIC: WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
DATE: 17-08-2019

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Workplace violence
Workplace violence is observed in hospital in several ways and it is important to prevent and
ensure recognizable hazards in the workplace (Laschinger 2014). Types of workplace violence
include threat, sabotage, sexual assault, domestic violence, product contamination, etc. These are
dangerous in the workplace environment as it may hinder the success of the organization. Patient
safety and healthy workplace are addressed in the organization while focusing on several
measures to eradicate workplace violence from hospital (Ariza-Montes 2014). It is important to
promote a culture of safety where patients are satisfied with the service and nurses to take
responsibility for the work environment.
Workplace violence a major problem
Workplace violence is a major problem in hospital as it leads to conflicts at the workplace. From
the healthcare crime survey, it is observed that the type of workplace violence such as criminal
intent and domestic violence have spread in the USA. The examples of Workplace violence are,
criminal intent commits robbery in the workplace, intoxicated patient harms the nurses, fired
employees are a threat while assaulting other employees and ex-husband assaults ex-wife at the
workplace (Bentley, Catley, Forsyth & Tappin 2014). Promoting a culture of safety is the current
measure that is introduced in hospitals. A responsibility to ensure the work environment by
nurses is the ultimate goal of a health care center. This leads to employee retention, employee
satisfaction, and high-quality services. Workplace violence is the major problem as it may harm
and mentally and physically to patients or the hospital staff. The perpetrator may harm the
patient which leads to a major issue. The ultimate objective of the hospital is to provide patient
safety which is not provided when the workplace violence is observed in the organization
culture.
Objectives
Effective leadership may help to resolve the issue while addressing managerial communication
and excellent leadership skills. As workplace violence is a major threat of employee safety,
several adverse effects need to be controlled. Leaders should make sure that performance
appraisals are addressed which is probably an effective way to address safety at the workplace.
Leaders prevent violence in the culture while providing disciplines, policies, and procedures to

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be followed by the employees in the health care unit. Warning sign training is provided to
employees for preventing workplace violence. Knowledge and training is provided to mitigate
the risk of workplace violence (Shanafelt & Noseworthy 2017). The performance issues are
addressed such as absenteeism, tardiness and several errors at the workplace which may signal a
problem in routine jobs. Zero tolerance policy must be adopted by leaders so that the threat of
violence can be taken seriously (AANA 2018). Workplace Violence Prevention Plan is prepared
to prevent workplace violence that includes reporting the issues and working on strategies that
provide training to handle a situation in pre and post-incident workplace violence. Thereby
effective leadership will help to mitigate the problem of workplace violence and ensure patient
safety (Welp, Meier & Manser 2016).
Workplace violence harms employees, patients, and the organization. It is thereby important to
focus on several aspects that are taken to control workplace violence and work on patient safety
skills. As a new graduate nurse, the responsibility is to focus on leadership skills that resolve the
problem of workplace violence. Patient safety is the ultimate goal of the organization, thereby a
graduate nurse should be well-known of nursing practices and the importance of patient safety
and healthy workplace environment (Hall 2016). OSHA guidelines should be known to nurses to
ensure occupational and safety health administration.
It provides the details regarding risk identification, employee commitment at work, staff
supervision and written records to be studied by a nurse to prevent workplace violence. A
graduate nurse should understand the importance of organizational policies and resources that
includes a code of conduct, zero-tolerance policy, and employee support at the time of workplace
conflicts. As a nurse, these are the guidelines that ensure patient safety at the time of workplace
violence and conflicts
Scope
The scope of organizational policies and resources include the code of conduct, zero-tolerance,
and initial employee support (Arnetz 2015). These are necessary to be integrated at the
workplace as it provides a culture of safety and enables to resolve the workplace violence in the
environment. Disruptive behaviors are not acceptable in the workplace which is an important
aspect. Criticism from leaders should be accepted as it helps to provide the zero-tolerance

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violence policy. OSHA guidelines are important as it provides patient safety and a safe
environment to employees. Code of conduct and zero-tolerance policy will minimize the abuse to
the employees and consider the responsibility of employees to work towards safety practices in
an organization (Pompeii 2015). Ongoing education related to stress management, conflict
management, etc is important as it helps to support the employees. Clear communication and
leadership goals are addressed with the concept and leadership skills for patient safety. There are
ethical boundaries that are addressed in terms of following the OSHA guidelines which adhere to
the organizational code of conducts.
Role model
Contemporary research regarding code of conduct and zero-tolerance policy that the organization
has addressed is essential and solves the issues of workplace violence which is important in a
health care organization (Reynolds, Kelly & Singh-Carlson 2014). Communicating the
workplace violence and addressing the problem and solution is important as it helps to focus on
patient safety attributes and brings a healthy workplace environment. Communicating these
aspects of zero-tolerance and code of conduct provided by OSHA will help to improve
workplace standards
Conclusion
This information that is provided about workplace violence and mitigating the problems of
workplace violence is like a role model situation. The solutions will address patient safety and
build healthy work environment at health care centers. The workplace issues will be resolved and
the initiatives will support staff to improve quality service

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References
Ariza-Montes JA, Muniz RN, Leal-Rodriguez AL, Leal-Millan AG, 2014, Workplace bullying
among managers: a multifactorial perspective and understanding. International journal of
environmental research and public health, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 2657-2682.
AANA, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, 2018, Promoting a culture of safety and
healthy work environment, AANA, 1-12.
Arnetz, J. E., Hamblin, L., Essenmacher, L., Upfal, M. J., Ager, J., & Luborsky, M. J, 2015,
Workplace assessment of violence risk: Understanding patient-to-worker violence in hospitals: a
qualitative analysis of documented incident reports, Adv Nurs, vol. 71, no. 2, pp. 338-348.
Bentley TA, Catley B, Forsyth D, Tappin D, 2014, Understanding workplace violence: the value
of a systems perspective. Appl Ergon, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 839-848.
Hall LH, Johnson J, Watt I, Tsipa A, O'Connor DB, 2016, Healthcare Staff Wellbeing, Burnout,
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Laschinger HK, 2014, Impact of workplace mistreatment on patient safety risk and nurseassessed
patient outcomes. J Nurs Adm; vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 284-290.
Reynolds G, Kelly S, Singh-Carlson S, 2014, Horizontal hostility and verbal violence between
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Pompeii, L. A., Schoenfisch, A. L., Lipscomb, H. J., Dement, J. M., Smith, C. D., & Upadhyaya,
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Shanafelt TD, Noseworthy JH, 2017, Executive Leadership and Physician Well-being: Nine
Organizational Strategies to Promote Engagement and Reduce Burnout. Mayo Clinic
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Welp A, Meier LL, Manser T, 2016, The interplay between teamwork, clinicians' emotional
exhaustion, and clinician-rated patient safety: a longitudinal study. Crit Care, vol. 20, no. 1,
pp.110-120.

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