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NEW! Web site Spotlight: The root of horizontal hostility

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, February 28, 2008

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Attention readers! Starting with this week's issue of HCTW, we will feature weekly highlights from our new online resource, www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com - the Web site dedicated to relieving your biggest nursing leadership headaches. Enjoy!

The terms "horizontal violence" and "horizontal hostility" are used to portray aggressive behavior between individuals on the same power level, such as nurse-to-nurse and manager-to-manager. Horizontal hostility can be physical or verbal. In nursing, verbal aggression is more prevalent. It can be either overt or covert. Because studies show that the majority of our communication is nonverbal, covert behaviors have the biggest impact. Below are examples of both overt and covert hostility:

Overt: Name-calling, bickering, fault-finding, backstabbing, criticism, intimidation, gossip, shouting, blaming, using put-downs, raising eyebrows, etc.

Covert: Unfair assignments, sarcasm, eye-rolling, ignoring, making faces behind someone's back, refusing to help, sighing, whining, refusing to work with someone, sabotage, isolation, exclusion, fabrication, etc.

Editor's Note: This excerpt was adapted from HCPro's book Ending Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility: Why Nurses Eat Their Young and Each Other, by Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, MN. For more information on this resource (and many others!), click here to see inside our books at www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com! 

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