Understanding Lateral Violence in Nursing Professional issues

The concept of lateral violence (LV) also is known as horizontal violence, bullying, or aggression (Griffin, 2004). Other terms in the literature relating to this concept are horizontal hostility, verbal abuse, or “nurses eating their young” (see Figure 1). The phenomenon has been described in nursing literature for more than 25 years (Farrell, 1997; Roberts, 1983). The literature defines LV as nurses overtly or covertly directing their dissatisfaction inward toward: (a) those less powerful than themselves, (b) themselves, and (c) each other (Griffin). The lack of a universal term to encompass these actions makes integrating research on LV difficult (Bartholomew, 2006). LV manifests itself in a variety of unkind, antagonistic interactions that occur among nurses at the same organizational hierarchy (Alspach, 2007); these interactions may be overt or covert (Bartholomew; Griffin). Because most communication is nonverbal, covert behaviors have the biggest impact (Bartholomew). LV is an act of aggression that is perpetrated by one nurse against another. The common manifestations of LV have been described by Griffin (2004) as nonverbal innuendo, verbal affront, undermining activities, withholding information, sabotage, infighting, scapegoating, backstabbing, failure to respect privacy, and broken confidences (see Table 1). Typically, LV is verbal or emotional abuse, but it also can become physical abuse (Longo & Sherman, 2007). LV is an issue throughout nursing and practice settings (Stanley, Dulaney, & Martin, 2007; Woelfle & McCaffrey, 2007).