Objectives
Bullying in nursing is defined by the American Nurses Association (ANA) as “repeated, unwelcome unpleasant activities meant to humiliate, distress and insult the target. “Categories of bullying in nursing; Hazing, Horizontal hostility, Workplace incivility, Workplace incivility, Lateral violence, and relational aggression. Common bullying behaviors include; yelling, public belittling, Condescending tone and demeanor, Ostracizing, Impatience, Silent treatment, and Sabotaging.
Workplace violence
Workplace violence is defined as any act of intimidation, harassment, or threat of physical assault or other threatening disruptive conduct at the workplace. For instance, as per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), 761 of the 5,333 fatal workplace violence that occurred in the U.S. in 2019 were caused by another person’s purposeful actions(“Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, 2021”, 2021). In whatever form it takes, workplace violence is a severe problem for both employers and employees across the country. Every year, many American employees report becoming victims of workplace violence. Sadly, many more incidents go undetected.
Protocol and the preparations
A hostile intruder or an active shooter is a person who actively engages in attempting to kill or killing people in an area that is populated and confined and populated using any means. The means include but are not limited to firearms, vehicles, or bladed weapons, any tool that encompasses imminent harm in the circumstances in which it is used. There is no pattern or technique to their victim selection in most cases. The majority of active shooter scenarios are unpredictable, unfold swiftly, and are over in a matter of minutes.
“ALICE” stands for:
Alert– one should always stay alert; the resulting situation could be anything.
Lockdown – an individual should make wise survival decisions for evacuation. The fellow should secure the room when they decide not to evacuate.
Inform — To disseminate real-time information by all means required.
Counter – This is the employment of basic, proactive methods in the event of an Active Shooter encounter.
Evacuate – Get out of the danger zone as soon as feasible.
According to Rega and Fink (2017), three steps in reducing fatalities are;
Run means to flee the location as soon as possible.
Hide – look for a safe spot to hide or deny the gunman access.
Fight: If your life or the lives of others is in danger, you may make the personal decision to fight to survive, try to assault, and incapacitate the shooter.
Window of life
Safe Havens International created the Window of Life emergency response strategy. It is stated that a person in a crisis has four obligations, and you should constantly be aware of these: In a crisis, you are a valuable asset that should not be overlooked. If you are lost, your absence is sensed in consecutive locations surrounding you, similar to how ripples in a pond are felt. Furthermore, recognizing your value as an asset entails using that value to help others, which is the reseason to search for others in your proximity. Third, once you have safeguarded yourself and warned people close to you, it is critical to alert individuals affected by the crisis but may have a little more time to react. Finally, one should always be knowledgeable on the steps to be taken in such a case and make the public aware of the problem.
Training and discussing an active shooter situation encourages every individual to contemplate what will be done in such a situation. Staff may be necessary to employ more than one option as a scenario unfolds. During an active shooter event, personnel will rarely have all of the data needed to make an educated choice about which approach is best. While they should adhere to the plan and any directions during an emergency, they will frequently have to depend on their judgment to choose which choice would best safeguard their lives.
Responsibility of a nurse in the scenario
Injured persons can be treated when safe or the shooter has been incapacitated. As a nurse, while waiting for emergency medical personnel, you might give life-saving help, like fast bleeding control. Remember that after the shooter is disabled or apprehended, the site becomes a crime scene, and nothing should be moved or handled except to assist the injured. Following initial care, victims are often transported to a central assembly site when a mass casualty strategy is undertaken. Based on your expertise, training, and talents, you may also assist here.
Bullying in nursing
Bullying destroys the self-confidence and self-image of bullied individuals, forcing them to quit or unwillingly embrace what is going on around them. Several studies have indicated that bullying of nurses leads to professional competence degradation, increased sick leave, and job turnover. Bullying in the workplace resulted in exhaustion, job discontent, and health hazards. It has been demonstrated to diminish work productivity and self-confidence.
Reasons why bullying is a problem
Bullying can harm patients; disruptive, threatening, and disruptive actions can encourage medical mistakes and (lead) to avoidable poor effects. Furthermore, nurse bullying is expensive for healthcare workers. When nurses who are harassed opt to leave their positions rather than stay in a workplace environment that makes them unhappy, it typically leads to more significant turnover.
Suggestions for a new nurse
The capacity to document bullying conduct is one of the most potent tools against it—document any bullying incidents you see, including the date, facts, person, and time. Align the behavior to the patient’s safety, quality of the patient, or client satisfaction problem to reinforce your documentation (d’Ettorre, Mazzotta, Pellicani & Vullo (2018). Obtain a copy of your organization’s disruptive policy behavior or rules of ethics. You can use this to demonstrate that the bully’s actions are disruptive and undercut a safety culture. You may have to do this retroactively but remember the incidents precisely.
Joining a movement that pushes for a healthy workforce
More nurses than mentoring and assisting other nurses, particularly the newer colleagues. Locate them. Spend quality time with them. Solicit their assistance. They will assist and safeguard you. The point is that you do not have to suffer in silence. Not with so many individuals and resources accessible to assist you. Al-Ghabeesh & Qattom (2019) has procedures in place that urge workers to save copies of any letters, text messages, or emails received from an accused harasser and a time-stamped record of every incident involving the harasser. This documentation might be helpful later on when dealing with abusive conduct.
The first step in training nurses to reduce bullying from others is to educate them on what should be done and what not to do when approached by a bully.Positive celebration, bully-free work cultures can also help to reduce bullying. Bullying Awareness Week is a fantastic time for nurses to recognize and celebrate a good work environment. Bullying Awareness Week is for both children and adults.Nurses’ participation in policy creation allows them to assume responsibility and ownership for the environment in which they operate.
References
Al-Ghabeesh, S. H., & Qattom, H. (2019). RETRACTED ARTICLE: WORKPLACE BULLYING AND ITS PREVENTIVE MEASURES AND PRODUCTIVITY AMONG EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT NURSES. Israel journal of health policy research, 8(1), 1-9. Web.
d’Ettorre, G., Mazzotta, M., Pellicani, V., & Vullo, A. (2018). PREVENTING AND MANAGING WORKPLACE VIOLENCE AGAINST HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS. Acta Bio Medica: Atenei Parmensis, 89(Suppl 4), 28. Web.
DEATH ON THE JOB: THE TOLL OF NEGLECT, 2021. AFL-CIO. (2021). Web.
Rega, P. P., & Fink, B. N. (2017). INCORPORATING AN ACTIVE SHOOTER PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE PROGRAM INTO THE HEALTHCARE STUDENTS’ SIMULATION EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUM. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 32(S1), S217-S218. Web.