Nr504: Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development

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Ending Nurse-Nurse Violence with Ethical Leadership
NR504: Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development

Ending Nurse-Nurse Violence with Ethical Leadership Upholding high professional standards and codes of ethics is and always will be a top priority within nursing. There is an abundance of literature focused on the subject, with much of it emphasizing the treatment of patients. However, in the past twenty years there has been an increase in research related to how nurses treat each other. As a profession, nursing is well known for its caring spirit; nurses devote their time and energy to easing the suffering of their patients through the care they deliver. Yet, there exists in on-going trend of nurse-on-nurse violence within the workplace. Nurse-nurse violence or horizontal hostility is defined as “aggressive and destructive behavior of nurses against each other” (Woelfle & McCaffrey, 2007, p. 123). Such behaviors can include bullying, name-calling, intimidation, back stabbing, gossip, blaming, sarcasm, criticism, put-downs, belittling, sabotage, isolation, exclusion, fabrication, and so on (Bailey, 2013; Milton, 2009). The American Nurses Association (2013) provides nurses with a code of ethics; many of the provisions within the code are violated when these types of behaviors are exhibited. For example, provision 1 declares: “the nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth and uniqueness of every individual…” (ANA, 2013). When a nurse does not act in accordance with the code of ethics, nursing leaders are obligated to step in for the sake of the nurse and for the sake of the patients that are in his/her hands. Ethical leadership is the key to ending nurse-nurse violence.
Strategies Leaders Can Use to Defeat Nurse-Nurse Violence
Nurse leaders need to focus on three

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