UC Irvine

Background: The nursing profession is dynamic, encompassing various roles and diverse skill sets. The intense and stressful demands in healthcare make for a challenging environment susceptible to high-pressure situations, a breeding ground for incivility. For decades, nurses have worked amidst a culture of lateral violence, commonly known as nurse bullying. Objective: The purpose of this study is to review contributing factors that predispose novice nurses to lateral violence to educate nurses about their risks and their vital role in ameliorating this negative culture. Novice nurses will be empowered through the provision of communication strategies against incivility. PICOT: This study was aimed to address the question: Would lateral violence awareness education with integration of communication promotion strategies to novice nurses improve their understanding of the issue, perception of workplace safety, and likelihood of addressing the problem? Research Design: This study used both qualitative and quantitative methods to survey nine new graduates from nurses hired at the University of California Irvine Medical Center using the Negative Behaviors in Healthcare survey. Data were collected using a survey through Qualtrics, a secure web-based data management software. Ethical considerations: The project was determined to be a Non-Human-Subject study and did not require approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Participants were made aware that the study was voluntary. Consents were obtained from all respondents. Discussions: Lateral violence manifests as negative behaviors in healthcare systems that affect the workplace climate and nurses’ ability to deliver quality care that has been overlooked over time. The prevalence of this issue was discussed, and behaviors were defined and identified in this study. Conclusions: This study reviewed the proneness of the nurses, especially new graduate nurses or novice nurses with up to three years of employment, to this type of violence through collective literature. Necessary components were included in the education material and survey for this project. This offered the opportunity for new nurses to exercise professional scripts when incivility is encountered. The results suggest a systemwide approach of combining educational intervention with cognitive behavior training as a potential defense against lateral violence.