A Contemporary Professional Nursing assignment on occupational/workplace violence

Question

Task: Examine and discuss occupational/workplace violence in relation to the contemporary nursing profession and environment, from a nursing perspective in your nursing assignment.

Answer

Introduction
The violence against nurses at workplace has become a serious concern and this is not limited to a specific country or region. This global issue of workplace violence against nurses from the parents, carers or relatives of the patients, needs thorough research so that proper solutions can be designed for nursing assignment. The nurses are responsible for providing the patients with life-saving care. However, these nurses are victimised and are subject to more violence than the other health care professionals. As per Australian College of Nursing (2021), in Australia rate of claims from the victims of workplace violence is two times more among females than males. The statistics in the nursing assignmentshow 11.3 claims from female nurses versus 4.7 claims from male health care workers. Thus, it is crucial to introduce mandated psychological safe process for safeguarding the dignity of the nurses at work. In this nursing assignmentessay, the aim is to investigate the violence which the nurses face from the patients and their family. The intensity of the violence, the forms of violent activities, etc. would be analysed in this nursing assignmentby referring to scholarly works.

Discussion of Workplace Violence against Nurses in thenursing assignment
Safety of Nurses is Questionable
The profession of the nurses is a noble one. They take the complete responsibility of the patients and provide them with health care services. However, the nurses are often not safe at their workplace as per the nursing assignment. Every year there are several cases reported of violence against nurses at their workplace. The reports and studies have shown that due to the workplace violence 17.2 percent nurses quit their jobs every year (Pich& Roche, 2020). As per the nursing assignment the nurses take proper training in health care and they work in hospitals and other health care institutions. The nurses prepare medical records, coordinate with the doctors, collaborate with the entire medical team, cater to patients’ needs, etc. The nurses further aim at promoting better health care awareness among the patients and their family members regarding disease prevention and health care. The nurses dedicate themselves towards administering proper treatment and medical care to the patients (Attafuahet al, 2022). They facilitate conducting regular tests as well as monitoring the health condition of the patients. However, the nurses are not free from threat. The nurses are often not very safe at their workplace. In the recent years, this issue has gained prominence as more workplace violence issues are being reported by nurses. The statistics in the nursing assignmentshow 25 percent of the registered nurses (RN) reporting of physical assault either by the family member of the patient or the patient himself. More than 50 percent of the nurses are exposed to bullying or verbal abuse (Dafny, Beccaria& Muller, 2021). Their safety is at risk as the patients, their family and carers often get violent towards the nurses.

Workplace Violence
The workplace violence as per the nursing assignment is a universal problem which prevails within the health care structure. The behaviour or action which is considered to be violent is not rightly defined. This ambiguity in defining workplace violence creates confusion due to which the nurses fail to lodge formal complaint against such behaviour. According to Safe Work Australia (2021), there are reports stating that the workplace violence against the nurses is not only limited to the hospitals but prevail in other health care organisations as well. Thus, the safety of the nurses should be ensured at all such health care units where nurses work. The probability of experiencing workplace violence is more among the nurses who are on duty in the emergency wards. More than 98 percent of the nurses working in such departments report of physical, verbal and emotional violence (Timminset al, 2022). These violent behaviour from patients, their family or carers affect the emotional stability of the nurses. The nursing staff as per the nursing assignmentexperience psychological as well as physical damage due to such occupational violence. During the career span, 8 to 38 percent of the health care workers face physical abuse at workplace. The organisations need a systematic approach to address such violent behaviours. The nurses and midwives face violence while at work (Berlandaet al, 2019).

Forms of Violence on Nurses
As per World Health Organisation (2020), the reports published by World Health Organisation (WHO) the nurses at their workplace experience occupational violence. In the contemporary health care environments the nurses face written threats, verbal threats, direct physical assaults, verbal harassment, physical harassment, sexual harassment, etc. from the patients, their family members, relatives or carers. At workplace, the nurses often face moral or ethical dilemma. According to the nursing assignment this is such a situation where the nurses find it difficult to decide between the competing morals and they know that irrespective of what they choose, they would face the consequences (Cabilan, Johnston&Eley, 2020). At times, the ethical dilemmas may lead to conflict between the code of ethics of nursing profession and the nurses’ personal values. Emotional stressors of nursing profession are many. These include confrontation with death, high frequency of patients, inadequate staff, high exposure to infection, etc. As per the nursing assignment these add on to the regular stress of the job. An icing on the cake is the violence at workplace which include physical abuse, psychological abuse, etc.

Research Gap in the nursing assignment
The research gap in the nursing assignmentexists because there is scope for in-depth research on the measures for controlling occupational violence of nurses. However, it can be recommended that to reduce or prevent the workplace violence, the overall management of the health care organisation needs to take pro-active steps. The organisations should have a workplace violence prevention program and related policies. The nurses should be made aware of such preventive policies and programs so that they do not become victims of such violence. According to the nursing assignment the nurses should be encouraged to participate in the personal safety training programs organised by the hospital or health care organisation (Somaniet al, 2021). The nurses should be asked to attend the anti-workplace violence meetings and enrol themselves in the health, safety and security committees.

Solutions to Workplace Violence
The violence against the nurses at the workplaces can be reduced if the nurses know what to do for their own protection. As per the nursing assignment the nurses should ensure that the health care organisation where they work adoptsmeasures and formulates policies for the safety of the nurses and other health workers. The health workers or nurses are working extremely hard to cater to the needs of the patients, addressing the queries of their family and friends, guiding their caregivers, etc. They do not deserve to be tortured. The violence against them should be prevented at any cost. Any form of physical or verbal abuse against the nurses should be subject to legal actions against the abuser. Furthermore, the nurses should be made aware of which actions come under violence and should be reported. It often happens that the nurses face violence and abuse but fail to report it as they are unaware of what is subject to legal actions (Berlandaet al, 2019). The reporting system of the nurses as per the nursing assignmentshould be improved. The nurses should maintain records and deliver time to time information to the patients’ family or relatives so that there is no confusion later on which often leads to unrest and violence. While handling critical or mentally unstable patients, the nurses should make sure that they are safely dressed to protect themselves from any violent actions. According to the nursing assignment the nurses should have a union responsible for speaking on behalf of all the nurses at the workplace. The representative of this nurses’ union should attend all decision making meetings of the health care organisation. This would ensure that policies in favour of the nurses are undertaken. The nurses should be aware of their work environment as well as the behaviour of the patients. The nurses should be attuned to their responses towards patients and work. The violence risk assessment tools like HCR-20, risk matrix, etc. could be used for risk analysis and evaluation of the scenario leading to violence towards nurses. As per the nursing assignment the nurses should try to understand the socio-cultural biases which have an impact on violence exhibited against them (Attafuahet al, 2022). The safety of the nurses should be ensured within as well as outside the health care institutional settings. The nurses should be careful of their surroundings and take professional help if required.

Conclusion
It can be concluded from the nursing assignmentthat the workplace violence is growing across the globe. There are thousands of nurses who are becoming victim of such violent acts. The nurses should know which behaviour is to be reported as violence. The nurses need to be aware of the policies which have been developed to safeguard their dignity and ensure their safety at workplace. The patients as well as the other stakeholders of the health care organisations or environment where the nurses are engaged in job, should be made aware of the violence that the nurses face. This would help the stakeholders to be more sensitive towards the nurses. The health care organisations need to take up various measures for addressing the problem of workplace violence experienced by the nurses. As per the nursing assignment this problem could be resolved by applying measures for creating awareness among the nurses, improving their reporting system and adopting policies for their safety and protection.

References
Attafuah, P. Y. A., Amertil, N., Sarfo, J. O., Deegbe, D. A., Nyonator, D., Amponsah-Boama, C., &Abuosi, A. A. (2022). ‘I decided to attend to him because it’s my duty’: Student Nurses perception and attitude towards care of older adults. BMC medical education ad nursing assignment, 22(1), 1-7. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12909-021-03090-z Australian College of Nursing. (October, 2021). Occupational violence against nurses. Retrieved from https://www.acn.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/position-statement-occupational-violence-against-nurses.pdf
Berlanda, S., Pedrazza, M., Fraizzoli, M., & de Cordova, F. (2019). Addressing risks of violence against healthcare staff in emergency departments: the effects of job satisfaction and attachment style. BioMed research international, 2019. https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2019/5430870/ Cabilan, C. J., Johnston, A. N., &Eley, R. (2020). Engaging with nurses to develop an occupational violence risk assessment tool for use in emergency departments: A participatory action research inquiry. International emergency nursing, 52, 100856. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1755599X20300288
Dafny, H. A., Beccaria, G., & Muller, A. (2021). Australian nurses' perceptions about workplace violence management, strategies and support services. Journal of Nursing Management. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13522 Pich, J., & Roche, M. (2020, November). Violence on the job: The experiences of nurses and midwives with violence from patients and their friends and relatives in nursing assignment. In Healthcare (Vol. 8, No. 4, p. 522). MDPI. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8040522
Safe Work Australia. (2021). Preventing workplace violence and aggression. https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-01/Guide%20for%20preventing%20workplace%20violence%20and%20aggression%20-%20for%20publishing.pdf
Somani, R., Muntaner, C., Hillan, E., Velonis, A. J., & Smith, P. (2021). A systematic review: effectiveness of interventions to de-escalate workplace violence against nurses in healthcare settings. Safety and health at work, 12(3), 289-295. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2093791121000354
Timmins, F., Catania, G., Zanini, M., Ottonello, G., Napolitano, F., Musio, M. E., ... & Bagnasco, A. (2022). Nursing assignmentmanagement of emergency department violence—Can we do more. Journal of clinical nursing. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jocn.16211
World Health Organisation. (2020). Preventing violence against health workers. https://www.who.int/activities/preventing-violence-against-health-workers