¶ … 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...

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;…