One of the biggest concerns of emergency departments of hospitals across the world is workplace violence. In the hospitals, the healthcare professionals including the nurses and other staffs become the victim of verbal as well as physical assaults from the patients and their families also. In the emergency departments of Australian hospitals it is increasing at an alarming rate. Furthermore, amongst all other healthcare professionals, nurses are more likely to face workplace violence and verbal abuse from the patient parties (Gates, Gillespie &Succop 2011).
Nurses not only receive physical harassments but also some threatening that always disrupts their mental peace and creates psychological issues. However, workplace violence is often kept unreported in the healthcare organizations because nurses are taught that violence is a part of their work and getting harassed is quite common while dealing with patients. But, constant assaults and violence affects the normal working of the nurses which in turn reduces the productivity of the hospitals or the healthcare organizations as productivity is always dependent on the quality of service. Several studies in this regard have also revealed that emergency departments are the worst place to get attacked by violence. Again, as these assaults are under-reported, the higher authority and management do not get aware of this all the time and as a result no actions are taken from their side (Sato et al. 2013).
But, it is very much essential to uproot the problem after an in-depth analysis in order to improve the service quality of any healthcare organization. The nurses and other healthcare professionals who are experienced with physical and verbal abuses can play a major role in disclosing the real cause and which help in the procedure to reduce it.
Relevance and significance of the problem.
Nurses and other healthcare professionals is the main pillar of success, reputation and productivity of any healthcare organization. If nurses cannot give their full potential in their job, then it hampers the quality of service they provide which in turn affects the reputation of the organization or the hospitals. Nurses always face various kinds of assaults from the patients and their families and this happens mostly in the emergency departments of the hospitals. Sometimes, nurses go into trauma out of fear and they also become reluctant to come into their workplace.
Many studies also disclosed that some of the nurses and other healthcare professionals were seriously attacked by the patients which brought their life in risk also. With the use of some external weapons, patients attacked nurses and other staffs even inside the hospital premises whenever they were dissatisfied from any of the services the hospital provide. The research papers are focussed in finding the types of assaults they receive and how it is kept under-reported. So, the research question is relevant to the topic and it has a great significance in finding what types of assaults are hampering the lives of the nurses.
Research question
What are nurses’ experiences of patient-related violence whilst working in the Emergency Department setting?
Five Key Messages
1. In a study, organized in a hospital of Australia, it was found that nurses who receive verbal and small physical violence attack from the patients and their families sometimes excuse them as they think all these are the part of their job and getting verbally abused is quite natural. As nurses consider the violence as a common part they do not report against it and as a result no actions are taken from the authority to resist it. Even, in the interview round of the study, nurses were selective in describing their experience regarding violence in the emergency department (Hogarth, Beattie and Morphet 2016).
2. According to the report of studies, it is clear that nurses are more likely to experience workplace violence and most of the assaults occur in the emergency departments where various kinds of patients are admitted with some serious issues. Nurses not only get harassment from the patients but also they get threatened by their family members. Nurses accepted that the violence makes them weak and they fear to come to their workplace due to this. Even, they do not get attention from the higher authority as they do not report against it considering violence as a very much common issue of emergency department (Han et al. 2017).
3. Studies revealed, nurses always complaint about their safety in the workplace. Nurses are always suffering from dissatisfaction in their work and they do not want to work alone in the emergency departments of the hospital out of fear of getting assaulted by the patients and their families. Nurses are seeking help to get rid of their vulnerable situation whilst working in the emergency departments of the healthcare organizations or the hospitals because they find it fearful in coming to their workplace. The threatening and other verbal abuses they receive from the patients and their families hamper their mental stability (Wolf et al. 2014).
4. The issue regarding the violence of emergency departments has become a professional issue in all over the world. A qualitative study organized in an Australian hospital revealed that nurses experienced physical assaults that include slap, kick as well as hit by the patients. Sometimes dissatisfied patients spat on the nurses also. Even, nurses shared that they have become used to with the verbal abuses by the patients in the emergency departments. Even, the findings from the study also disclosed that some patients used external weapons like needles, knives and others in order to attack the nurses and all other healthcare professionals as they were not satisfied with the service provided by the staffs. Their family members also were found to be involved in violence in some cases (Pich et al. 2011).
5. Most of the time, amount of assaults increased as it was kept unreported by the victims. The healthcare professionals considered violence as a common factor of emergency departments and they did not get enough support to report to the higher authority also. Not only the staffs who were directly associated with the treatment procedure of the patients but also the other professionals that include hospital administrative and managers who were indirectly involved also got harassed by the patients and their families (Pich et al. 2011).
Working alone in the emergency departments has become a nightmare for nurses. Working in the hospitals has become an issue due to the presence of this kind of violence. Whenever the patients were dissatisfied by the service of the staffs they found the way in attacking the staffs and other healthcare professionals who were directly as well as indirectly associated in their treatment (Han et al. 2017).
Implement and disseminate results for relevant target audiences
Clinicians
From the findings of the primary research articles, it is clear that workplace violence has become a common and dangerous issue for the healthcare professionals. Even, the clinicians, who are involved directly in treating the patients, also get attacked if the patients and their families are not satisfied with the service. Mainly, clinicians who are treating some serious patients experience violence if the patients are not happy with the treatment procedure (Phillips 2016). It affects their career, reputation which in turn hampers their mental balance. From the findings of the analysis, the clinicians will be aware of the risks associated in dealing with patients.
Relatives
The research articles clearly illustrated how violence in the healthcare organization affects its internal peace and reputation which leads to less productivity and hampers the quality of the service they provide also. The other patients who are not involved in the violence also get affected with the violence by receiving low quality service from the providers. If the staffs are unwilling to work with full potential then the worst sufferer will be the existing patients who are under the treatment procedure (Blando et al. 2015). This analysis provides a clear idea to the relatives of the patients that how the violence can become responsible for the instability of treatment plan and program.
Patients
Most of the patients, who are not satisfied with the service provided by the hospital or any other healthcare organization, choose the way of violence as a weapon to protest. Patients always become aggressive on the nurses and other staffs and use verbal assaults to protest against any fault of them. All these violence occurrences affect the normal treatment procedure. Patients not only attack the staffs, nurses or clinicians but also the managers and administrative officers present in the healthcare organization (Arnetz et al. 2015). It is obvious that patients should have right to protest against any poor quality service but spreading violence is not a good solution for the hospitals as it hampers the peace of other patients.
Undergraduate nursing students
Nurses are the worst sufferer due to workplace violence in the emergency departments of the hospitals. They are directly involved in the patients care and whenever the patients find any gap or dissatisfaction regarding their service, they attack the nurses. Even, the assaults are not only confined to verbal assaults, rather, some serious physical violence also hampers the mental peace of the nurses working in the emergency departments (Blando et al. 2015). The findings from the analysis also depicted that in some cases, nurses were attacked with some external weapons by the patients. They also receive threatening from the families of the patients in many cases.
Some, nurses shared their experience and admitted that the workplace violence making them reluctant in working alone in the emergency departments of the hospitals. It has become a nightmare for some of them too. In an American study it has been found that 50% nurses of emergency departments are experienced with violence and most of them consider it as regularity and thus it is kept under-reported to the hospital authority. From this analysis of the findings of research articles, undergraduate nurses can get the idea about the types of violence and the ways to deal with it (Blando et al. 2015).
What still needs to be known (gaps)
The research articles, which has been analysed consists of many studies and all of the studies proved the fact that nurses and healthcare professionals who are working in the emergency department of the hospitals face various kinds of violence from the patients as well as their families. Sometimes that violence is limited to verbal but in some cases it has crossed the limit and resulted in physical violence too. All the papers described interview and other studies which were organized in the nurses only. The experienced were recorded from the perspective of nurses and no other healthcare professionals like staffs, clinicians were involved in the analysis.
The violence in the emergency departments not only affects the life of nurses but also creates hazards for the clinicians, other staffs as well as healthcare professionals of any healthcare organization or hospital. It is still tp be known that what are the exact kind of violence faced by the clinicians and other healthcare experts in the emergency departments and how other departments are also affected by the violence is still unknown after the analysis of the research articles.
Recommendations to address gaps
All the research articles were successful enough in establishing the fact that nurses and other health experts and staffs face physical as well as verbal assaults. However, there was a gap in the research that only nurses were considered while interviewing to record responses regarding the experience of violence in the emergency departments. If there would be interview for all the healthcare professionals, then the gap could be addressed properly. So, if the responses from the professionals apart from the nurses would have been taken to find the complete report, it would produce a wider result which would be more accurate.
References
Hogarth, K.M., Beattie, J. and Morphet, J., 2016. Nurses’ attitudes towards the reporting of violence in the emergency department. Australasian emergency nursing journal, 19(2), pp.75-81.
Han, C.Y., Lin, C.C., Barnard, A., Hsiao, Y.C., Goopy, S. and Chen, L.C., 2017. Workplace violence against emergency nurses in Taiwan: A phenomenographic study. Nursing outlook, 65(4), pp.428-435.
Wolf, LA, Delao, AM, Perhats, C.& Plaines, D2014, ‘Nothing changes, nobody cares: Understanding the experience of emergency nurses physically or verbally assaulted while providing care’, Journal of Emergency Nursing, vol. 40, pp. 305-310.
Pich, J, Hazelton, M, Sundin, D.& Kable, A 2011, ‘Patient-related violence at triage: A qualitative descriptive study’, International Emergency Nursing, vol. 19.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download