Nurse-To-Nurse Horizontal Violence In Hospitals And The Protective Role Of Head Nurse’s Caring

Abstract

Background: Creating healthy and safe work environment for health care providers is a major concern for healthcare employers. Hence, Healthy work environment is imperative for ensuring patient safety, staff satisfaction, retention, and organization's financial viability. Horizontal violence is considered one of the main challenges in nursing profession and all health sector organizations and might hinder them achieving such health work environment. Increasing evidence has showed that leadership and group factors are important in facilitating horizontal violence. Whether the head nurse’s caring and group behavior perceived by nurses has protective effects against horizontal violence remains unclear. Aims: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of nurse-to-nurse horizontal violence in hospitals and examine the effects of head nurse’s caring and nurse’s group behavior on horizontal violence. Methods: A cross-sectional online-based questionnaire study was performed in seven hospitals in Riyadh, KSA. Data related to the demographic information, horizontal violence, head nurse’s caring and group behavior were collected. Descriptive analyses, chi-squared tests and logistic regression were used for data analysis. Results: In total, 1942 valid questionnaires were collected, with a 92.70% effective response rate (1942/2095). Of tho[1]se, 59.1% of respondents had experienced horizontal violence at least once in the previous 6 months. Covert negative behaviors were more frequently reported. Compared with the low level, moderate and high levels of the head nurse’s caring showed a lower risk of horizontal violence (odds ratio [OR] = 0.400, p < .001; OR = 0.128, p < .001); moderate and high levels of group behavior also showed a reduced risk (OR = 0.601, p < .001; OR = 0.221, p < .001). Conclusion: Horizontal violence is common among KSA nurses. The head nurse’s caring and maintaining a good climate of nurses’ group behaviors could serve as protective factors for preventing horizontal violence. Recommendation: This study helps nursing managers identify which specific negative behaviors occur frequently and require special attention. It suggests that nursing managers attach importance to improving their caring ability towards nurses and to creating an amicable climate of group behavior to buffer against horizontal violence.