ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Organizational Behavior: Violence In Work Force

Organizational Behavior: Violence In Work Force

Introduction

The employer is required to ensure a safe and healthy environment for the staff and workers shall endeavor to preserve health and safety. Accordingly, the employer must take precautions to workers' health and safety protection. In particular, the employer should make every effort to avoid harm and to provide appropriate organizational structures and material resources. Besides biological and chemical dangers, there are multiple risk factors exist for the health-care professionals. In health care, there is a load of stress of the workers. In addition, according to the surveys of the American Agency for Safety and Health at Work made on different professions, the health profession is the most exposed from the point of view of physical and psychological violence (14.6%). Western American countries as well as the USA introduced strict guidelines regarding labor safety in health care organizations in order to prevent work place violence. Unfortunately, Hungary does not follow the Western practice; regulators do not pay sufficient attention to this question. I have found only one American worthy scientific publication on this subject, and just a couple of other translations issued by the American Agency for Safety and Health at Work.

The media talks much more about the inadequate health care and less about violent acts in hospitals. It is important to examine the impact of violence on the behavior of the health care staff at the workplace and on the quality of performance. Violence can happen in every workplace, but there are an increasing number of possibilities in hospitals and it occurs more frequently. Many nurses can not provide maximum work efficiency in an environment with a lot of conflicts.

The prevention of workplace violence in hospitals and health institutions is crucial for the quality of patient care. Research methods were: studying the American and foreign literature (written and electronic form), personal conversations, interviews, questionnaire surveys among the hospital staff in Budapest hospitals, as well as use of statistics (police, hospital security agencies statistics). At the beginning of my essay I present the concept of hospital security. After presenting the different grouping of various threats for institutions, I proceed to the main part of my essay, the presentation of workplace violence in hospitals. Last but not least, after the summary of the problem I outline a few applicable principles for the prevention of acts of violence occurring in American hospitals.

Hospital security definition

The concept of hospital security is difficult to define and assess. The health safety is determined in connection with the patients. The patients are entitled to safe health care. In relation with the hospital bodies security can be defined as a system, having the task to protect the property of the institute as well as to provide a relative protection of all persons who interact with the institution and its environment. Security does not mean avoiding risks, but to prepare for dealing with risks. Because of the problematic definition of the concept, it is difficult to implement ...