Lateral Violence in the Emergency Department Dissertation

Lateral Violence in the Emergency Department - Dissertation Example The paper "Lateral Violence in the Emergency Department" talks about the lateral violence as an act of violence against ones’ peers and focuses on lateral violence in the Emergency Departments in the US healthcare system. The lateral violence has increased the prevalence of mental health conditions such as depression and schizophrenia among clinical nurses (Kathryn, 2011). When nurses are not happy their motivation and job satisfaction decrease. Eventually, these lead to higher employee turnover rates which increase the healthcare institution’s expenses and a shortage of staff. Most importantly, lateral violence among nurses has compromised the quality of healthcare service by reducing the levels of optimal patient care. Lateral violence has especially been identified as more prevalent among nurses working in Emergency Departments. There are cases where a nurse has noted an error in medication administered by a fellow nurse but because of lateral violence within that se tting that nurse fails to report this error, may be due to fear or revenge, this later leads to aggravated conditions for the patients. Many patients have experienced a relapse in their conditions because one nurse refused to help another nurse claiming to be too busy when their help was needed or sought. Most of the decisions and medications nurses in ED make determine whether a patient lives or dies. It is, therefore, crucial that the incidences of lateral violence between nurses working in the ED be kept at their minimum.