The American Organization of Nurse Executives and

JONAVolume 45, Number 7/8, pp 358-360Copyright B 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.All rights reserved.

The American Organization ofNurse Executives and EmergencyNurses Association GuidingPrinciples on Mitigating Violencein the Workplace

Stacey Chappell, BA

Violence in the workplace, includ-ing violence toward staff from pa-tients and families as well as lateralviolence, has becomea serious safetyissue forhospitals in theUnitedStates.Concernedabout this issue, theEmer-gency Nurses Association and theAmerican Organization of NurseExecutives convened aDay ofDia-logue to discuss ways to mitigateviolence in the workplace. The re-sult of the discussion was the de-velopment of guiding principles anda toolkit to assist nurse leaders insystemically reducing lateral violenceand patient and family violencein hospitals.

Workplace violence is an in-creasingly recognized safety issuein the healthcare community. Work-

place violence is generally definedas any act or threat of physical as-sault, harassment, intimidation,and other coercive behavior.1 Itincludes lateral violence, or bul-lying, between colleagues (eg, nurse/nurse, doctor/nurse). In 2010, theBureau of Labor Statistics datareported healthcare and social as-sistance workers were the victimsof approximately 11,370 assaults bypersons.2 While workplace violenceagainst healthcare professionalscan and does happen everywhere,the hospital emergency department

(ED) is among the most vulnera-ble settings.

According to a 2011 study bythe Emergency Nurses Association(ENA), 54.5% of 6,504 emergencynurses experienced physical violenceand/or verbal abuse from a patientand/or visitor during the past week.3

The actual rate of incidences of vio-lence is much higher because manyincidents go unreported, due in partto the perception that assaults areBpart of the job.[4

Last year, the American Orga-nization of Nurse Executives and

Figure 1. Guiding principles.

358 JONA � Vol. 45, No. 7/8 � July/August 2015

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Leadership Perspectives

Author Affiliation: Senior Communica-tions Specialist, Advocacy and Special Projects,American Organization of Nurse Executives,Chicago, Illinois.

The author declares no conflicts of interest.Correspondence: Ms Chappell, 155 N

Wacker Dr, 4th Flr, Chicago, IL 60606([email protected]).

DOI: 10.1097/NNA.0000000000000214

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

ENA convened aDay of Dialogue todiscuss the issue of violence againstnurses in healthcare settings. Thegroup, composed of ED nurses and

nurse leaders in the acute care set-ting, discussed how incidents ofviolence are currently addressed inhospitals; the need for partnership

between hospital leaders, especiallynurse leaders, and staff; and theneed to create an environment wherehealthcare professionals, patients,

Figure 2. Five priority focus areas.

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and families feel safe. Through fa-cilitated dialogue, the group de-veloped guiding principles andprioritized areas to assist all hos-pital leaders in systematically reduc-ing lateral and patient and familyviolence in hospitals.

The Guiding Principles on Miti-gating Violence in the Workplace(Figure 1) and priority areas (Figure 2)are listed. Additional resources,

including a toolkit to address work-place violence in healthcare set-tings, are available at aone.org/workplaceviolence.

REFERENCES

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

National Institute for Occupational Safety

andHealth.Violence: occupational hazards

in hospitals. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2002-101/. Accessed July 1, 2014.

2. US Department of Labor. OccupationalSafety & Health Administration. Safety and

Health Topics. Workplace Violence. http://

www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthcarefacilities/

violence.html. Accessed December 1, 2014.

3. Emergency Nurses Association. Emer-gencyDepartment Violence SurveillanceStudy. Des Plaines, IL: Emergency Nurses

Association; 2011.

4. Gacki-Smith J, Juarez A, Boyett L. Vio-

lence against nurses working in US emer-

gency departments. J Nurs Adm. 2009;39(7/8):340-349.

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http://aone.org/workplaceviolence

http://aone.org/workplaceviolence

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2002-101/

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2002-101/

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthcarefacilities/violence.html



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The American Organization of Nurse Executives and