It seems that there is more being said about violence and confrontation in the workplace in regards to nursing. This is a somewhat understandable trend considering the increasing stresses facing nurses and the health care system with shortages, budget cuts, staff cuts, and yet a continuously expanding role and expectations.
This violence is present at several different levels; nurse to nurse, patient to nurse, nurse to nursing student, and other health care professionals to nurse.
With increased awareness comes increased ability to deal with it through appropriate channels. I have faced a few situations as a student in the clinical setting that have created feelings of unease for me. Learning new skills, new procedures and protocols can be quite distressing when first beginning in a new unit. Unfortunately, an accepting atmosphere is far from reality in my experiences. True, it is just as stressful on the nurses having us students on the floor. Somehow there has to be a happy medium that can be reached, right?
I went to a workshop regarding workplace conflict resolution, and many levels of workplace resources have available information, courses, and support networks. But does the awareness and resources make a difference? What options are available to assist in making a workplace more tolerable? What does one do when the communication "scripts" don't work? Any horror stories and how you dealt with them?
