Horizontal violence or lateral violence among nurses is a critical social issue given its global prevalence and frequency. In this study, we examined the effects of lateral violence on nurses’ burnout and empathy with patients by examining the moderating effect of communication in each relationship.

This was a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional descriptive study, including a total of 211 registered nurses who had worked for more than six months at a medical institution in Seoul, South Korea. The data were collected between March 20, 2019 and June 1, 2019 using self-administered online surveys. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were calculated, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed. To test the moderating effect of communication, an interaction term was added to each model.

Communication negatively moderated the relationship between lateral violence and burnout. On the other hand, there was no significant moderating effect of communication on the relationship between lateral violence and empathy with patients.

From these findings, we revealed the effect of communications between lateral violence and burnout. The higher the communication ability, the less the effect of lateral violence on burnout. Our findings highlight the importance of communication when developing interventions to reduce burnout in the presence of lateral violence.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects a cognitive behavioral intervention on perceived stress, somatic symptoms, automatic negative thoughts and dysfunctional attitudes in college students.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a nonequivalent control group design. Students who agreed to participate in the study and had a total score of 7 or greater on the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 were asked to choose one of the two groups to attend: Experimental and control groups. Students in the experimental group (N=17) received 5-weekly group sessions of the intervention, each of which lasted 60 minutes. The interventions were not provided to the control group (N=15). Students in both groups were asked to complete a set of questionnaires at baseline and five weeks. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and t-test, Mann-Whitney U test and repeated measures ANOVA were performed.

There was a significant interaction between time and group for perceived stress, somatic symptoms and automatic negative thoughts. Dysfunctional attitudes, on the other hand, were not significantly different by group.

The findings showed that the intervention was effective for college students suffering from perceived stress and somatic symptoms. In particular, the significant decrease in automatic negative thoughts among students in the intervention group suggests that the effect of the cognitive-behavioral intervention was mediated by the cognitive factors of somatic symptoms.