Violence

MORE THAN A BRAWL

A long-standing epidemic, which is recognized and addressed after 25 years, may be as serious as the diseases, which the healthcare industry has been zealously combating. It is called lateral violence or LV. It is hostility in both verbal and physical forms dealt by nurses upon fellow nurses under them, on the same level and among themselves. Six authors discuss its causes, forms, frequency, the victims, and approaches to this malady that distorts the very caring and compassionate image of the nursing profession.

The phenomenon sounds as new as it is repulsive and horrible, but it has been reported for more than 25 years (Farrell, 1997; Roberts, 1983 as qtd in Sheridan-Leos, 2008) but catching real attention only now. It is known as horizontal violence or hostility, bullying, aggression, verbal abuse and as ":nurses eating their young (Griffin, 2004 as qtd in Sheridan-Leos)." There is...
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