Date of Award
2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
Committee Chair
Cindy Miller
Abstract
Lateral violence in the workplace is not uncommon. Not only is it costly to the healthcare facility, it is detrimental to the nurse's physical and mental health. Lateral violence also affects the quality of patient care and increases the risk of poor health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between caring behaviors in nurse managers and the amount of lateral violence experienced by nurses on the unit. Using a modified version of the Workplace Aggression Research Questionnaire (WAR-Q) and Watson's Caritas Leaders Score (WCLS) surveys were electronically sent to nurses at a large acute care facility in the Southeast United States. Demographic data from the study indicate 92% of the participants were female, 91% Caucasian, 37% were between the ages of 21-40, 73% had been in their current position between < 1 year - 6 years, and 55% had their Bachelors of Nursing degree. For each question in the WAR-Q, questions were summed into six subscales. Findings from the study reveal that there is a moderate to strong negative correlation between perceived caring behaviors of nurse managers and the amount of lateral violence experienced on the unit. The strongest correlation was with the subscale of verbal aggression (r = - 0.727, p = 0.000). Correlations between perceived caring behaviors between nurse managers to feeling tense and stressed and nurses reporting work as a stressor for them also had moderate to strong negative correlations (r = - 0.604, p = 0.000, r = - 0.557, p = 0.000) respectively.
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Citation Information
Hill, Alicia, "Lateral Violence Experienced by Nurses in the Workplace" (2014). Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects. 20.
https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/nursing_etd/20