Evaluating an Educational Intervention on Lateral Violence

Background: Lateral violence involves disruptive behaviors that lead to toxic work environments. The purpose of this project was to determine the effects of an educational intervention to increase awareness and teach cognitive rehearsal to combat lateral violence. Method: A one-time pretest-posttest evaluation design was used to evaluate the effects of a 1.5-hour educational intervention. Participants were nurses on two nursing units; 29 respondents participated in the pretest, and 25 respondents participated in the posttest. Results: Positive trends were related to the decreasing frequency of lateral violence behaviors experienced and observed after the intervention. Participants were better able to identify causes of lateral violence in their work units, suggesting the educational intervention was successful in creating a healthier work environment and decreasing the incidence of lateral violence behaviors. Conclusion: Further evaluation is needed to determine whether the intervention would be effective over time. This project was limited by design and sample size.