Lateral violence: Calling out the elephant in the room

By Ann Kettering Sincox and Michelle Fitzpatrick, RN, MS, CPNP

For the last eight years, I’ve had the pleasure of being the MNA Consultant to the Michigan Nursing Students Association (MNSA) Board. Although each Board has had its own personality, there are some similarities. Individual members are all swamped with schoolwork. They are all amazed at what it takes to plan an annual convention. And, they all have horror stories of verbal abuse from some of the nurses they’ve met during clinical rotations.

And with good reason. Nursing students are one of the primary recipients of lateral violence, or nurse-to-nurse aggression. Whether it’s considered hazing, or a rite of passage, (“This happened to me when I was a new nurse so I’m just passing it along.”) or the real or perceived imbalance of power, nursing students are frequent targets of lateral violence. Cynthia Clarke PhD, RN notes that the consequences of lateral violence or incivility in nursing education include disrupted student faculty relationships, problematic learning environments, and increased student stress, as well as the potential for violence. In addition to nursing students, newly licensed nurses, along with newly hired nurses, temporarily assigned nurses, float nurses, and nursing assistants or aides
also commonly experience the backlash of lateral violence. Read the full article here: http://nursingnovellas.com/lateralviolencecallingouttheelephantintheroom