Using the attached documents create a literature review. The literature review serves as the foundation for your final research paper. A well-written literature review is broad in scope and illustra

RUNNING HEAD: VIOLENCE AGAINST HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS 1

Causes of violence against health workers and how we can resolve them

Meaning of violence against health workers and how we can resolve them

Introduction

           Hospitals are essential places in human life. However, proper healthcare is what is most important and is what defines a hospital. How often do you say” thank you” after getting treatment from a hospital? How often do you say “hi “to doctors, nurses and hospital cleaners? Well, I guess these are things you rarely do. As a healthcare administrator and manager, tasked with managing healthcare providers, it wise to internalize on issues affecting hospital workers. This will express care and appreciation for hospital workers all over the world. The importance of this article is to appreciate all hospital staff as well as to acknowledge their excellent work. By doing this, hospital workers will be motivated to provide proper healthcare. 

Violence against Healthcare Providers

           A significant number of violence makers in hospitals are patients or close relatives of patients. Violence to hospital staff can be verbally or even physical. Cameron (1998), adds that 45% of health providers have experienced verbal abuse within the last 15 working days. Most verbal cases are from drunk patients, while physical ones can be from mentally impaired patients. Health care workers, in particular, face dramatically higher risks for nonfatal assault (Elliot, 1997). However, cases of doctors being violated have been witnessed. One of the reasons why doctors are attacked is the feeling that doctors can treat a patient in the wrong way just for financial gains. Secondly, others believe a doctor must treat a patient and failure to do so they can take action in their own hands. Thirdly, waiting for a doctor for long periods has made patients feel as if very little attention is given to their concerns and often results in violence. According to Smith-Pittman and McKoy (1999), healthcare providers are not immune to destruction, and hence, it should be controlled.

Nurses, on the other hand, also go through a tough time coping with patients. This may arise mostly when they are administering drugs or giving injections. During this time, patients may use verbal abuses which may be due to their illnesses or medicines side effects. Also, relatives bringing their patients have been seen to lack patience as the nurse has to operate within the hospital rules. Others have been seen to demand favors, and if they hit a dead-end, this results in violence against the nurse. 

           Other severe violence is faced by providers from mental facilities where there’s a huge barrier in terms of communicating and also conduct. Providers get it rough, especially when controlling mentally impaired patients which in most cases result in attacks and even verbal violence. According to Harulow (2000), at least one-third of nurses are attacked by patients or patients’ friends.

            Violence on healthcare providers only has negative impacts. Some of them can be poor services or inadequate healthcare workers which may result in even death of patients. Levin and Hewitt (1998), confirmed that solutions to the assault of health workers in the US have started taking root. For this to end, both the patients and healthcare workers need to acquire more communication skills, taking note of violent patients and knowing how to handle them, running away from situations that may cause chaos, educating patients and their relative's on proper communication skills and improving the whole healthcare sector. 

Conclusion

           As discussed, it's evident that healthcare workers are violated. What is so absurd is the people who require their help the most (patients are the ones attacking them). It does not have to be this way. For better results, the patients need to look after the providers, and in return, they can receive proper healthcare. On the other hand, providers need to watch for signs of aggression when treating their patients.

References

Cameron, L. (1998). Verbal abuse: A proactive approach. Nursing Management, 29(8), 34.

Elliott, P. P. (1997). Violence in health care. Nursing Management, 28(12), 38.

Harulow, S. (2000). Ending the silence on violence [Nurses are exposed to high levels of workplace violence] — Australian Nursing Journal: ANJ, The, 7(10), 26.

Levin, P. F., Hewitt, J. B., & Misner, S. T. (1998). Insights of nurses about the assault in hospital‐based emergency departments. Image: the journal of nursing scholarship, 30(3), 249-254.

Smith‐Pittman, M. H., & McKoy, Y. D. (1999, September). Workplace violence in healthcare environments. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 5-13). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.