Browsing by Author "Rust, Hanri"
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- ItemHorizontal violence among nurses working in intensive care environments within the private healthcare sector(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Rust, Hanri; Bell, Janet; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Nursing & Midwifery.ENGLISH SUMMARY: Background: Nurses are three times more likely to become victims of abuse in the workplace than any other profession, with 65% of American nurses having reported being abused in the workplace in 2008. Horizontal violence has a detrimental effect on a victim’s psychological and physical health and can lead to a decrease in the quality of care a patient receives when being cared for by a nurse who is a victim of horizontal violence. Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate horizontal violence among nurses in order to quantify and describe this phenomenon as it occurs in intensive care environments. Methods: This study applied a quantitative descriptive survey design. Control over the relevant research topic were over a period of five months from 2016 to 2017. A two-stage cluster sampling design was applied to include hospitals with intensive care environments in the private healthcare sector within the Cape Metropole (N = 13, n = 6) and participants who met the study inclusion criteria (N = 182, n = 118). The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire developed from relevant contemporary literature to quantify and describe the existence and effect of horizontal violence among nurses working in these environments. The data were analysed using the statistical package Stata version 14.2 for Windows. The data collected were organised by using frequency distribution in which the number of times each event occurs was counted. Results: A response rate of 65% was obtained (N = 182, n = 118). The results showed that both covert and overt abusive behaviours occur among nurses working in intensive care units. The most common form of covert abusive behaviour was a person being ignored by his or her colleagues (n = 35, 32%) and that of overt abusive behaviour was colleagues complaining about one another in the workplace (n = 25, 21%). Both covert and overt abusive behaviours occur daily; however, more participants (n = 68, 60%) experienced some form of covert and/or overt abusive behaviour at least a few times a year. The participants reported having negative psychological effects and physical symptoms, such as negative internalised feelings about self and headaches, as an outcome of experiencing abusive behaviours. Quality of patient care is seen to be negatively affected by horizontal violence due to a person’s fear of being victimised (n = 56, 46%). Further, horizontal violence is seen as a trigger to the victim making errors (n = 51, 46%) as well as choosing to engage in unsafe practices during patient care (n = 44, 36%), or to leave employment (n = 23, 16%). The participants identified that both colleagues and supervisors commit abusive behaviours. Conclusion: Horizontal violence is experienced by all categories of nurses working at patients’ bedside in intensive care environments in the private healthcare sector within the Cape Metropole. Nurses experienced both covert and overt abuse in the workplace and suffered from a variety of effects such a professional discouragement, internalised negative feelings and even physical symptoms such as headaches and abdominal pain. For some nurses, the only way to end this cycle of abuse was to resign from their current employment. The quality of patient care delivered by abused nurses was also reported to be affected in terms of unsafe practice, with nurses putting not only their patients but also themselves at risk.