Lateral hostility and zero tolerance

In the editorial in the June 2007 issue of

, Dr Alspach cites 2 Calls to Action found in the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ (AACN) position statement related to abuse of staff. I agree that lateral hostility occurs and has for the 30 years; also, in general, I agree with the position statement. However, I am disheartened that the first bullet point is to develop a zero tolerance policy. I wanted to share the position statement with our management team, but I feared that they would implement the policy without giving the nurses the tools to correct the behavior.

I believe our position should be to educate nurses about lateral hostility and how to correct it, and then, if behavioral change is not noted, take action.

Although program...