lateral violence home health aid conference nitha
TRANSCRIPT
Home Health Aids Conference Prince Albert October 27 – 29th, 2015
Safety in the WorkplaceLateral Violence – Lateral Kindness
Greg Riehl RN BScN MA
Outline
• What is lateral violence?• What causes lateral violence?• What are the effects of lateral violence
• Who gets targeted
• Types of bullies
• Hierarchy
• Mobbing
• Cultural competence and culture
• Zero tolerance policies
• Functional versus dysfunctional conflict
• What can be done?• Discussion
Objectives
1. Identify terms used to describe negative coworker behavior
2. Describe an experience with negative coworker behavior
3. Discuss strategies to manage negative coworker behavior
Why am I here?
• I ask myself this every day, and I also ask those who I am working with from time to time
Stories
• I will use some of my experiences working in health, in the north, and as an male nurse, often an outsider, working in different situations.
• You are a part of the story.
Hierarchy
• The more vertical an organization is in its hierarchy, the more complicated communication becomes.• We are hired into a certain job, or role, but no
where does it tell us of all the lateral violence that exists, or what to do about it.
Communication is about listening
• My job description does not say, Greg, you will have to listen to a lot of your co workers bitching and complaining about each other, they will want you to fix their conflicts, and will want you to keep it a secret and tell no one.
• This will happen on a very regular basis, consider this ‘duties as assigned’
Lateral Violence
“Exists on a spectrum, from seemingly ordinary behaviour such as gossiping or criticism, to intimidation, racism and outright physical intimidation or harm.”
Linda Rabyj, 2005
Definition
Lateral Violence (LV), also called Horizontal violence, [bullying], incivility, and disruptive behaviours, creates an unpleasant work environment and has harmful effects on individual nurses, patient safety, and health care organizations.
Johnson, 2009 & Dimarino, 2011
Cyber Lateral Violence
Sending emails without greetings?CAPS LOCK
Hurt People Hurt People
When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need
punishment; he needs help.
Tich Naht Hanh
Hurt people hurt people
Hurt people hurt people. That’s how pain patterns get passed on, generation after generation after generation.
Break the chain today.Meet anger with sympathy, contempt with compassion,
cruelty with kindness.Greet grimaces with smiles.
When you forget about the fault, there is nothing to forgive.
Love is the weapon of the futureYehuda berg
Building a culture of respect combats lateral violence
A 2003 study in the Journal of Advanced Nursing found that half of newly qualified nurses report first-hand experience with lateral violence. Linda Rabyj, 2005
Who gets targeted?
Anyone who is different from the group norm on any major characteristic• Experience• Education• Race/ethnicity• Gender
Targeted person’s gender• 79% Female• 21% Male
Who is Doing the Bullying?
2009 survey by Workplace Bullying Institute:- Main perpetrator’s gender
• 65% Female• 35% Male
2009 WBI survey sited in New York Times:- Men target men and women equally- Women target women 70% of the time
Why does this happen in the Workplace?
• Isolated from the public and other staff• High-stress environment• Limited autonomy in practice • High-paced environment• Lack of experienced staff• Cliques or closely bonded groups• Hierarchical climate• Gender imbalance• Attitudes to training• Non acceptance of difference
Why?In my profession, nurses practice in a historically patriarchal environment.• Oppression leads to low-self esteem.• Nurses exert power over one another through lateral
violence.Lateral violence is perpetuated through the culture of nursing (new nurses, curriculum, etc).• “Nurses eat their own”• “See one do one teach one”
We now work with four different generations in the workforce, adding to the complexities of effective
communication.
Who is doing it?
Co-worker-on-coworker aggression• Directed toward individuals at same power level• Intended to cause psychological pain• Does not include physical aggression
Intergroup/hierarchy conflict• Shift to shift/class to class/group to group…• Cliques within a workgroup• Department to department• We are a team but some people are more important than the others??
Risk
• We often face a risk acting, and we also face a risk when we do not act.
David and Goliath
Three types of BULLIES
Sydney based clinical psychologist and workplace bullying specialist Keryl Egan has formulated three workplace bully profiles:
1.Accidental bully2.Narcissistic bully3.Serial bully
Accidental bully
This person is task orientated and just wants to get things done, tends to panic when things are not getting done, and goes into a rage about it. This person is basically decent, they don’t really think about the impact of what’s happening or what they have done.They are responding to stress and it is believed that they can be coached out of this behavior.
Narcissistic Bully
They are grandiose and have dreams of breath taking achievement. They feel they deserve power and position. They can fly into a rage when reality confronts them. This person is very destructive and manipulative, they don’t set out in a callous way to annihilate any person – it is purely an expression of their superiority.
Serial BullyHas a sociopathic and psychopathic personality. This type of bully is intentional, systematic and organized and is often relentless. They usually get things done in terms of self-interest.They employ subtle techniques that are difficult to detect or prove. Coaching is often ineffective.They exhibit the following:•Grandiose, but charming•Authoritative, aggressive and dominating•Fearless and shameless•Devoid of empathy or remorse•Manipulative and deceptive•Impulsive, chaotic or stimulus seeking•Master of imitation or mimicry
Conflict It’s not all Bad
Functional Conflict is considered positive, as it can increase performance, support change, and identify weaknesses or areas that need to be supported.
Dysfunctional Conflict is harmful to people and the organization. This type of confrontation does nothing to support goals or objectives.
In Conflict who are you: Victim, Villain, Hero or Resolutionary?
In conflict, each person feels hit first.
The size of the villain determines the size of the hero. “Without goliath, David is just some punk, throwing rocks.”
Billy Crystal, My Giant
Victims
• Are you a victim of the victim syndrome?
Workplace Violence & Harassment
Experts identify two primary categories of lateral violence.
Overt(direct)
Covert (passive)
10 Most Common Forms of Lateral Violence in Health Care
1. Non-verbal innuendo,2. Verbal affront,3. Undermining activities,4. Withholding information, 5. Sabotage,
Griffin. 2004
10 Most Common Forms of Lateral Violence in Health Care
6. Infighting, 7. Scapegoating, 8. Backstabbing, 9. Failure to respect privacy, and10.Broken confidences.
Griffin. 2004
Mobbing
A group of coworkers gang up on another • often with the intent to force them to leave the work
group
Five phases of Mobbing1.Conflict2.Aggressive acts3.Management/Faculty Involvement4.Branding as Difficult or Mentally ill5.Expulsion
Who else is involved?
• Students/Patients/Visitors/Family• Quality care
• The Team• Co-workers as bystanders
• Systems• Employers• Faculty• The ‘System’
Back to nursing, Do Nurses eat their young – and each
other…This old adage should not be the price the next generation has to pay to join the nursing profession.
What stories do you want your students to talk about with their peers, co-workers, or at their 5 or 10 year reunion?
Health Settings - Impacts on Patients and Families
Disruptive behavior linked to:• 71%: medical errors• 27%: patient mortality• 18%: witnessed at least one mistake as a result of
disruptive behavior Rosenstein & O’Daniel, 2008 Ruminating about an event takes your attention off task and leads to increased errors and injuries
Porath & Erez, 2007
Impact is on all staff
• Physical• Psychological• Social
Impacts on Health Systems
• Dwindling workforce- 1 in 3 nurses will leave the profession (2003)
• Reduced professional status
• Corrosion of recruitment and retention
Impacts on Health SystemsNegative Impact on the work environment:• Communication and decision making• Collaboration and teamwork
Leading to:⇑ employee disengagement⇓ job satisfaction and performance⇑ risk for physical and psychological health
problems⇑ absenteeism and turnover
Impacts on Health Systems cont.
Cost of Lateral Violence:
•“Turnover costs up to two times a nurses salary, and the cost of replacing one RN ranges from $22,000 to $145,000 depending on geographic location and specialty area.”
Jones, C & Gates, M. (2007).
•The lag in time for a new nurse to become proficient is a significant consideration.
Impacts on New Team Members
• New team members are extremely susceptible to Lateral Violence and experience more negative impacts than experienced team members.
Prevention Strategies are needed• Top down and bottom up approaches• Mentoring and investigation systems• Role Models• Education• Empowerment
We All need to ask ourselves:
• “Did I participate in bullying?”
• “Did I support this kind of behavior in others?”
• “Did I intervene if and when I observed it?”
“We must work to uncover and reverse atrocities, one person, one company, and one law at a time”
Bullyproof Yourself at Work, G & R Namie
What to do?• Awareness• Education• Dialogue• Zero tolerance policy• Be confident• Develop effective coping mechanisms• Confront the situation• Rehearsal• Enact policy and procedure• Code of conduct• Don’t accept it!
Zero Tolerance Policies
The Joint Commission and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN).
•2008: mandate the development and implementation of processes to offset LV that enforce a code of conduct, teach employees communication skills, and supporting staff.
•2009: advocates that communication skills should be as proficient as clinical skills.
Safe place
• Where is the safe place in your organization?
Lateral Silence
• It is part of the culture.• Everybody knows about it• Everybody does it• No body talks about it
Culture of Silence
• “Because we set ourselves up to be healers, this kind of behaviour is in the shadows. We don’t know what to do about it, so we try to disown it.”
• In practice, this means we can’t stay silent when another person’s actions “makes us cringe”.
•Having the conversation is what matters . . . it shows that both professionals share responsibility for behaviour affecting staff and patients. • Monica Branigan, 2009
Our Culture needs to change
• We do not accept bullying in our schools or other workplaces so why is it ok in the workplace?
• In Nursing, this is the culture that was learnt by nurses 30 years ago and has propitiously been taught to new nurses.
Why Don’t We Stop Lateral Violence?“It’s not a problem in our work area”
“Everybody does it – just get used to it”
“If I say anything, I’ll be the next target”
“We have policies but they aren’t enforced”
“She sets herself up for getting picked on”
How do we deal with the stress?
• 75% talk to family, friends, colleagues
• 50% experience a desire to resign
• 49% lose interest in job, disengage
• 23% use more sick time
• 35% use formal channels 23% HR representative 12% Union or professional organization representative
What can you do?
• Dialogue is ultimately far more effective than pointing fingers
• Cognitive Rehearsal Techniques
• Health care professionals across the spectrum working together more effectively and patients receiving better care.
DESC COMMUNICATION MODEL
Describe – the behaviorExplain – the effect the behavior has on you, coworkers, patient careState – the desired outcomeConsequences – what will happen if the behavior continues?
Rehearsal
Research has demonstrated the benefit of rehearsal for new employees.I.e.
When a staff member makes a facial gesture (raising an eyebrow) the participant was instructed to say “I see from your facial expression that there may be something you wanted to say to me. It’s ok to speak directly to me”.
Griffin, 2004
Teamwork and Communication
• Involve everyone in solving problems related to these issues.
• Develop a set of “RIGHTS” for everyone.
• Effective anti-bullying practices must include a statement of exactly what constitutes bullying.
• Communication needs to be a part of culture.
Statement of Commitment to Co-workersAs your co-worker with a shared goal of providing excellent service to people
and families, I commit the following:I will accept responsibility for establishing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships with you and every member of this staff.
I will talk to you promptly if I am having a problem with you. The only time I will discuss it with another person is when I need advice or help
in deciding how to communicate with you appropriately.
I will establish & maintain a relationship of functional trust with you and every member of this staff. My relationships with each of you
will be equally respectful, regardless of job titles or levels of educational preparation.
I will not engage in the '3B's (bickering, back-biting and bitching) & will ask you not to as well.
I will not complain about another team member & ask you not to as well. If I hear you doing so, I will ask you to talk to that person.
I will accept you as you are today, forgiving past problems, & ask you to do the same with me.
I will be committed to finding solutions to problems rather than complaining about them or blaming someone, & ask you to do the same.
I will affirm your contribution to quality service.
I will remember that neither of us is perfect, & that human errors are opportunities not for shame or guilt, but for forgiveness and growth.
(Adapted from Marie Manthey, President of Creative Nursing Management in Caroline Flint's Midwifery Teams and Caseloads 1993; p. 138)
Lateral Kindness
• Please be kind to each other• Respectful and responsible relationships, there
are no apps for that.• Be Grateful• Be Great!
Discussion, questions, comments!!!
Thank you for your participation
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