Academic writing assignment rubric and formatting guidelines

¶ … Roche, M., Diers, D., Duffield, C., and Catling-Paull, C. "Violence Toward

Nurses, the Work Environment, and Patient Outcomes." Journal of Nursing Scholarship, Vol. 42, No. 1 (2010): 13 -- 22.

The selected article detailed an empirical study based on a cross-sectional collection of data generated by the survey method from 94 nursing wards within two states in Australia. Approximately 2,500 individual nurses provided responses to survey questions asking about experiences with violence or harassment in the last five shifts worked. The data were correlated with corresponding data relating to patient outcomes and the incidence of nursing errors during the same shifts from which data about violence and sexual harassment were collected.

The results of the analysis indicated that approximately one-third of the nurses surveyed reported some form of violence, emotional abuse, threats, and sexual harassment on the job during the last five shifts worked. The results also indicated that medical errors, such as medication errors, and more delays in furnishing nursing services in wards that reported higher instances of violence, abuse, and harassment than in wards from which subjects reported lower rates. Finally, the study also concluded that advanced education among nurses and higher skill levels (as measured by bachelor of nursing degrees and RN certification, respectively) were associated with lower rates of reported violence, abuse, and sexual harassment in clinical nursing environments.

Impact of Sexual Harassment on the Nursing Profession

In terms if the impact of sexual harassment on the nursing profession, the implications of the study were that: (1) Violence, emotional abuse, and sexual harassment are substantial problems within clinical nursing environments; (2) The incidence of these negative factors in the clinical nursing environment corresponds to increased incidence of medical errors, delays in nursing services furnished to patients, and worse clinical patient outcomes; and that (3) Higher educational and certification or skill levels are associated with lower rates of violence, emotional abuse, and sexual harassment in the nursing environment.

Naturally, the fact that violence, emotional abuse, and sexual harassment appear to be such common occurrences in nursing is a troubling result. That is true strictly from the perspective of the mental and emotional health of professional nurses and with respect to attrition rates and turnover in the field. However, it also suggests that these vocational factors also affect patent outcome negatively as well by undermining the quality of nursing services delivered by nurses subjected to these types of negative situations at work. While legal mechanisms are available to address complaints after the fact (Halbert & Ingulli, 2009), by that time, negative consequences have already impacted the clinical environment.

Personal Opinion and Experience in the Workplace