Bullying in nursing

Lewis identifies the following bullying acts in UK nursing:[6]

Such acts are frequently insidious, continuing over periods of time that may be years. Bullies are often serial bullies. The bullies are invariably aware of the damage they are doing. They undertake such actions basically to gain control and power.

Laschinger, Leiter, Day, and Gilin found that among 612 staff nurses, 67.5% had experienced incivility from their supervisors and 77.6% had experienced incivility from their coworkers.[7] Rude remarks from a patient or family member can distract healthcare professionals and cause them to make mistakes and to provide suboptimal healthcare.[8][9]

In 2003 the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association in the UK carried out a survey showing that half of the health visitors, school nurses and community nurses working in the National Health Service (NHS) have been bullied by their managers. One in three of the 563 people questioned said the bullying was so bad they had to take time off work. Constant criticism and humiliation were the most common complaints. Others said they were shouted at or marginalised.[10]

Not only does incivility in nursing has a negative influence in the well-being of staff, the delivery of quality care, and the culture of safety, but also contributes to the nursing faculty shortage.[11] There is an increase in nurses' dissatisfaction in their jobs, which is contributing to the ongoing struggle with nurses leaving faculty positions and taking early retirement. Therefore, it is necessary for all healthcare faculty members to have a clear understanding of the cause and effect of incivility and possible strategies to reduce incivility rate.

In order to further investigate and understand the impact of workplace bullying on the nursing work environment, an inventory was developed to address specific workplace bullying constructs within the nursing context.[1]

Horizontal violence[12] is often the same term used when referring to bullying in nursing. This term describes the appalling behavior shown by colleagues in the nursing field. Such demeaning behavior makes the work place stressful and unpleasant. Another term associated with bullying in nursing is lateral violence. This term is used to describe the effect that bullying takes on someone lower down on the ladder of workforce, making it hard to climb that ladder.

Some health organizations are seeking to educate staff and health care team members on how to improve social interactions, proper business etiquette, and foster positive people skills in the work environment. Nurses are entitled to monetary compensation for bullying.[13][14][15][16] In addition, communication and collaboration are first and foremost steps to improve nursing faculty member's ability to initiate professional relationships with both colleagues and patients. Workshops, open forums, counseling, and mentoring are also possible options to manage bullying in nursing.

• Aggression in healthcare
• Bullying in medicine
• Emotional labor
• Patient abuse
• Workplace bullying
• Workplace incivility