Introduction: Bullying and horizontal violence are particular features of workplace violence, currently under the attention of professional organizations in the nursing world.
Objective: To highlight the spread of the phenomenon, the characteristics, consequences and possible solutions.
Methods: Literature review through Medline and CINAHL databases using the following keywords: "lateral", "horizontal", "hostility", "bullying", "workplace bullying," "violence" "nursing".
Results: 30 original studies were selected and included in the review. The prevalence of bullying variesfrom 5.7% to 94% of surveyed nurses. The horizontal violence percentages are, instead, 1.3% and 65%. Theforms of abuse experienced by nurses are rangingfrom acial harassment (lessfrequent, 4.5%), to emotional abuse (up to 62.4%) and being burdened with unmanageable workloads (71%). There is a strong correlation between poor quality of interpersonal relationships and the greater rate of abuse perpetrated by peer colleagues and supervisors. Bullying is significantly higher among those who have less seniority, and are younger. The most common problems reported by victims, range from anxiety, to headache,, gastrointestinal symptoms, and finally to those typical of post-traumatic stress disorder (from 25% to 55%). The victims of bullying have a high proportion of intent to resign (50%), and a 3-fold greater propensity than others to leave the profession (p < 0.001).
Discussion: The theory Oppressed Group Behavior is the most reliable to explain bullying and horizontal violence among nurses, although currently not validated. There are difficulties in comparing the data about bullying and horizontal violence from the literature due to the lack of agreed definitions. Studies about prevention and management of problems derived from bullying and horizontal violence are still scant.