Violence amongst nurses is not a new phenomenon. It is a topic that has been dormant despite its growing numbers. Specifically violence in the form of physical assault has been an issue that many nurses are exposed to.
The magnitude of physical assaults taken amongst nurses has progressively increased. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of assault in the hospital industry in 2010 was 8.0 per 10,000 full-time-workers, three times the rate (2.4 per 10,000 full-time-workers) for all private sector industries (Rodriguez, Myers, Richardson, & Lipscomb, 2010, para. 1). Taking into consideration that these are that of reported incidents, it leaves a margin of unreported incidences to speculate about. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that magnitude of the issue and how it is not declining, but rapidly increasing. With the shortage of nurses, one can only consider if physical assaults contribute to the rapid turnover of nurses.
Assault is defined within the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as, “An assault is carried out by a threat of bodily harm coupled with an apparent, present ability to cause the harm’ (2011,pg 323). Within a work environment, this can includes actions that are combative and intentional aggressive behavior towards persons at work. Physical assault has numerous risk factors that can contribute to the likelihood of an assault to occur again. A study conducted by a Susan Goodwin shined light on both known and unknown risk factor of physical assault. Similar to the findings discovered within class, the study confirmed environments that had a predisposition to more acts of physical assaults. …show more content…
“He said it would be very costly and make it harder to get the legislation passed,” and predicted opposition from hospitals” (Gates, 2011, p.
The magnitude of physical assaults taken amongst nurses has progressively increased. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of assault in the hospital industry in 2010 was 8.0 per 10,000 full-time-workers, three times the rate (2.4 per 10,000 full-time-workers) for all private sector industries (Rodriguez, Myers, Richardson, & Lipscomb, 2010, para. 1). Taking into consideration that these are that of reported incidents, it leaves a margin of unreported incidences to speculate about. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that magnitude of the issue and how it is not declining, but rapidly increasing. With the shortage of nurses, one can only consider if physical assaults contribute to the rapid turnover of nurses.
Assault is defined within the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as, “An assault is carried out by a threat of bodily harm coupled with an apparent, present ability to cause the harm’ (2011,pg 323). Within a work environment, this can includes actions that are combative and intentional aggressive behavior towards persons at work. Physical assault has numerous risk factors that can contribute to the likelihood of an assault to occur again. A study conducted by a Susan Goodwin shined light on both known and unknown risk factor of physical assault. Similar to the findings discovered within class, the study confirmed environments that had a predisposition to more acts of physical assaults. …show more content…
“He said it would be very costly and make it harder to get the legislation passed,” and predicted opposition from hospitals” (Gates, 2011, p.