Horizontal Bullying in Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Horizontal Bullying in Nursing - Essay Example The essay "Horizontal Bullying in Nursing" represents various violent activities taking place in the nursing workplace, these include horizontal bullying, verbal and nonverbal attacks, violence that is horizontal and lateral in nature and anger. Such actions take place at different levels within the profession of nursing. These activities are experienced at the level of the nurse to nurse, physician, to nurse, nurse to physician and patient to nurse. Bullying can be verbal in nature; this takes place when the receiver of a message interprets the message to be harsh and aggressive in nature. Ample amount of research has been conducted in the field of nursing in the nation of Australia regarding the subject of violence and bullying, researchers in these nations denotes workplace aggression with the term bullying. The term bullying comprises of three elements, firstly an act is referred to as bullying in nature only when the person being treated feels that the act was bullying like and the act does not depend on the intention of the person who has conducted the act. Secondly, if an action needs to be referred to as bullying, it should negatively impact the victim. Lastly, an act is regarded as bullying when the same act is continuously carried out even knowing that the act is negatively affecting the victim. Bullying can arise at different levels such as the supervisor, the subordinates or coworkers can all indulge in the act of bullying. Therefore, horizontal bullying can be of both physical and vocal in nature.... Kind Horizontal bullying can be of both physical and vocal in nature and in the field of nursing, the prevalence of verbal bullying is more witnessed. Farrell states that verbal horizontal bullying consists of any kind of ill treatment that is verbal in nature and this kind of treatment makes the victim feels that he has been attacked either in personal or professional manner and the victim might experience humiliation (Vessey, 2010). This kind of treatment can take both overt and covert forms, researchers state that the highest percentage of communication that arises is nonverbal in nature and this causes ambiguity and may have much more impact on an individual than attacks that are overt in nature. Overt bullying and covert bullying can take several forms, over bullying may include criticizing, shouting and name calling for another individual and covert bullying may consist of ignorance, whining and sarcastic behavior against another subject (Hutchinson, 2010). Intention The intent ion that one nurse has for attacking another nurse by finding faults in them and their working and by complaining behind their back is to conduct an attack, ensure that a coworker is devalued and punished in the organization and to make him/her look bad in the eyes of others (Ferns, 2009). Several times the nurse who conducts the act of horizontal bullying is not conducting the act intentionally and the reason for conducting the act provided by them is because they feel that they are maintaining high standards of quality care by their actions. Nursing is a profession that is based upon the concept of caring and in such a profession, behaviors such