Date of Conferral

2019

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Kathryn Dardeck

Abstract

Lateral violence is an intentional and harmful behavior in the workplace by one employee against another. In nursing lateral violence has impacted the performance of nurses as well as patient care. Research suggests that lateral violence behaviors are still prevalent in the nursing workplace and that there have been few interventions to change these behaviors or address the power dynamics that cause them. Though most of the research on lateral violence has been conducted on female nurses, the population of male nurses is growing. Thus, the purpose of the study was to explore lateral violence in the workplace from the perspective of male nurses. A phenomenological approach with Marion Conti-O'Hare's theory of the wounded healer as the theoretical framework was used to address the research question on male nurse perception of lateral violence in nursing. The data for this study were drawn from interviews of 10 male nurses who were recruited with criterion sampling. Exploratory questions and vignettes were used to gather participants' responses. This allowed for larger themes and core ideas to establish codes. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results of the study indicate that lateral violence is a problem in nursing and that there is a gender bias that perpetuates this phenomenon. Results of this study have the potential to contribute to positive social change regarding male perception of lateral violence in nursing by encouraging interventions for lateral violence based on communication differences between genders.

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