Nursing Paper on Patient Abuse

Essentially, the term abuse is an issue facing the nursing profession today. Many unreported cases of encountered verbal and physical abuse have been found to be ample in acute and complex care settings. These cases are amongst professional individuals (nurse-nurse and nurse-physician abuse) and also among the patient abusing the nurses. Effectively, abuse is not only a Canadian issue. It has been reported internationally as well. Thus, many nurses today are lobbying for the decrease of abuse within health care settings in order to ameliorate the working conditions. Nursing abuse may lead to other issues which will be discussed in this study. This paper will address the nurse-nurse, nurse-physician and nurse-patient abuse. In addition, this study will indicate the many choices that nurses are given in case of abuse and present the need for solution for the prevention of abuse in nursing.
In 2006, the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) issued a document regarding violence in the workplace. The document estimated that 50 per cent of healthcare workers will be physically assaulted during their professional careers, and nurses are three times more likely to experience violence than any other professional group. Given that nurses constitute 58.3 per cent 6 of Ontario’s health-care workers, the impact of workplace violence on nursing and the delivery of nursing care are significant (2006). These statistics are very frightening considering that they illustrate current events in Ontario. In addition, workplace violence is present in almost all health care settings, which increases the rates of violence in Ontario. Effectively, high-risk practice settings for abuse were thought to be almost exclusively psychiatric and emergency units, however, findings now also point to violence against nurses in medical surgical and community settings (Duncan, 2000). The codes of ethics that regulate the roles of health care professionals not only establish rules regarding

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