violence in the workplace, including violence toward staff from patients and families as well as lateral violence, has become a serious safety issue for hospitals in the united states. concerned about this issue, the emergency nurses association and the american organization of nurse executives convened a day of dialogue to discuss ways to mitigate violence in the workplace. the result of the discussion was the development of guiding principles and a toolkit to assist nurse leaders in systemically reducing lateral violence and patient and family violence in hospitals. workplace violence is an increasingly recognized safety issue in the healthcare community. workplace violence is generally defined as any act or threat of physical assault, harassment, intimidation, and other coercive behavior. it includes lateral violence, or bullying, between colleagues (eg, nurse/nurse, doctor/nurse). in 2010, the bureau of labor statistics data reported healthcare and social assistance workers were the victims of approximately 11,370 assaults by persons. while workplace violence against healthcare professionals can and does happen everywhere, the hospital emergency department is among the most vulnerable setting.