Catalysts of worker-to-worker violence and incivility in hospitals

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Clin Nurs
• Personal Author:
  Hamblin, Lydia E ; Essenmacher, Lynnette ; Upfal, Mark J ; Russell, Jim ; Luborsky, Mark ; Ager, Joel ; Arnetz, Judith E
• Description:
  Aims and objectives
  
  To identify common catalysts of worker-to-worker violence and incivility in hospital settings.
  
  Background
  
  Worker-to-worker violence and incivility are prevalent forms of mistreatment in healthcare workplaces. These are forms of counterproductive work behaviour that can lead to negative outcomes for employees, patients and the organisation overall. Identifying the factors that lead to co-worker mistreatment is a critical first step in the development of interventions targeting these behaviours.
  
  Design
  
  Retrospective descriptive study.
  
  Methods
  
  Qualitative content analysis was conducted on the total sample (n = 141) of employee incident reports of worker-to-worker violence and incivility that were documented in 2011 at a large American hospital system.
  
  Results
  
  More than 50% of the incidents involved nurses, and the majority of incidents did not involve physical violence. Two primary themes emerged from the analysis: Work Behaviour and Work Organisation. Incidents in the Work Behaviour category were often sparked by unprofessional behaviour, disagreement over responsibilities for work tasks or methods of patient care, and dissatisfaction with a co-worker’s performance. Incidents in the Work Organisation category involved conflicts or aggression arising from failure to following protocol, patient assignments, limited resources and high workload.
  
  Conclusion
  
  Incidents of worker-to-worker violence and incivility stemmed from dissatisfaction with employee behaviour or from organisational practices or work constraints. These incident descriptions reflect worker dissatisfaction and frustration, resulting from poor communication and collaboration between employees, all of which threaten work productivity.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adult Aged Female Hospitals, Urban Humans Male Middle Aged Midwestern United States Personnel, Hospital Retrospective Studies Workplace Violence

  More +
• Keywords:
  Healthcare Workers Hospitals Incivility Mistreatment Worker-to-worker Workplace Violence
• Source:
  J Clin Nurs. 24(17-18):2458-2467
• Pubmed ID:
  25852041
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5006064
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01 OH009948/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  24
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:84cb6d6ecae62aba18ab2dc17d5441b8299e85c18014efd675c597657078096b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/41177/cdc_41177_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 86.91 KB ]