We have all heard the phrase that nurses eat their young, yet this is a sad but true reality in nursing. Most who have heard this phrase can relate to it because approximately 50% of all nurses have been victims of bullying by other nurse and an additional 27% have been witnesses to the bullying. In an article by Granstra (2015), the author identifies the prevalence of bullying amongst nurses. The term, horizontal or lateral bullying, refers to a nurse being initiated, harassed, or shown hostile/aggressive behavior from a coworker. This is differentiated from bullying from a superior which is not the focus of this paper. Granstra (2015), goes to say that the effects of the bullying have overall consequences not only to the victim but the organization they work likewise. It is noted that bullying decreases performance, therefore, patient safety is at risk and there is a higher rate of absenteeism and turnover which results in a financial impact on the facility.
Bullying can be overt behaviors such as criticism, belittling, being ignored, and spreading rumors, for example.
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Yet there are many factors that need to be considered when addressing this issue. Bullies are good at what they do, they are used to manipulating people and circumstances to benefit themselves. Make sure the situation you see if real, observe it on several occasion and then make the decision to act. One could talk to management hypothetically about bullying, in general, to ascertain how they would deal with the situation or you could talk to them directly. A nurse could defend the victim instantly with a verbal comment or by removing them from the situation by asking for help. Let the victim know that you understand their circumstances and ask if you could be of
Typically, when someone thinks of a bully, childhood memories of scuffles on the playground come to mind. Bullies are not usually people that are associated with adult life. However, nursing has changed this stereotypical view. For many nurses, bullying may be as great a threat every day at work as it was when they were in grade school. This threat is because of what is termed as horizontal or lateral violence in the workplace, and it is a surprisingly, prominent issue in the field of nursing. Furthermore, horizontal violence is a detrimental problem in nursing due to its damaging and negative effects on nurses and the nursing profession as a whole.
Nurse bullying is not limited to the new nurses being the victims. Bully behavior is a learned process and a choice. A new nurse might observe and embrace the bully behavior in hopes to fit in a little bit more (Rocker, 2008). Cliques may form on nursing floors which are the vehicles for nurse bullying. Cliques help a bully hide and gain support. It seems easier for people to join the group instead of fighting against it (Rocker, 2008). This is why workplace bullying is a growing statistic.
In 2009 unspecified electronic survey was conducted with factors such as type, frequency, perpetrators, and professional/personal concerns on bullying identified (Quine, 2001). The results revealed that out of 330 RN respondents, 72% reported positive to bullying at various occasions in line of their career. Of this segment, clear hostility seemed most frequent in surgical/medical, operational rooms, emergency, obstetrical areas of care and adolescent residential behavioral/ mental health units. The main culprits to these act are non-other than; charge nurses, senior nurses, physicians and nurse managers. This is impartial research among others that have been
To the public eye, hospitals and nurses are there for them and their work environment seems like one that would promote growth in the work place, but the public doesn’t see what happens behind the curtain at these hospitals. Bullying can be in every company, but the public never really sees it happening just the employees that work there. The definition of bullying according to Terri Townsend, who wrote “Break the bullying cycle”, states that “[b]ullying is defined as repeated, offensive, abusive, intimidating, or insulting behaviors; abuse of power; or unfair sanctions that make recipients feel humiliated, vulnerable, or threatened, thus creating stress and undermining their self-confidence” (Townsend). This bullying greatly affects the employees and makes the work place environment suffer. By using Bruno Bettelheim’s essay “The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank”, as a reference to compare why these employees put up with what happens to them at work. A very common everyday example where work place bullying/dehumanization happens would be the employees of McDonalds in Barbara Garson’s essay “McDonald’s – We Do It All for You”, which shows what these employees put up with on a daily basis. There is a huge difference in work places from that of a hospital to that of McDonald’s, but the question is why do these employees put up with the abuse? Hospital employees are also scared to stand up to their supervisors, because they don’t want to face the possible consequences that would
In a health and social care setting bullying can be lead to a nurse or socialwoker e.g. who is verbal bullying an elderly patient with sexual orientation. calling them names because of their orientation sex such as stupid, smelly, you look like a girl . Or boy. This will effect the patient physical, emotionally and
Medical facilities have to start paying more nurses to stay late for work because without adequate staffing the job duties tend to get behind. Facilities have to pay nurses more money to keep them on call or higher contracting nurses. Hospitals, clinics and other patient care facilities continue to lose money every day when nurses are bullied because it also effects patient satisfaction. “Occupational exposure to bullying decrease job satisfaction”(Ceravolo, Schwartz, Foltz-Ramos, & Castner, 2012, p. 600). Being a nurse who is a victim of bulling on a day-to-day basis will cause stress in the nurse’s life. If the bulling does not cease in the facilities, nurses will not be completely satisfied with their job and retention will remain a problem for many hospitals and clinics. Nurse retention is another problem that patient care facilities deal with because losing a nurse only means the facility will have to pay more money to replace another nurse. In a retrospective analysis the cost of hiring a new nurse average around $62,000 to $ 67,000 to recruit, orient and hire a r.n. (Wilson, Diedrich, Phelps, & Choi, 2011). In the end, the cycle will continue and the result will be nurse retention if bullying does not stop and is address within a hospital or a clinic.
There has been much research done on the prevalence of bullying in the nursing workplace. Smith, Andrusyszyn, and Laschinger (2010) report that up to 90% of nurses encounter bullying in the workplace. Because this has become so commonplace within the nursing environment, many nurses turn a blind eye, or passively participate in bullying, accepting it as a normal occurrence in the workplace
Bullying in the Nursing Field Introduction Bullying within the nursing field is a pervasive issue that detrimentally affects both individual nurses and the healthcare system as a whole. Bullying encompasses a range of behaviors including verbal abuse, intimidation, threats, and undermining actions. Despite the nurturing and caring nature associated with nursing, the profession is not immune to the detrimental effects of bullying. This essay explores the prevalence, causes, consequences, and potential solutions to address bullying within the nursing profession. Prevalence of Bullying in Nursing
Bullying is a serious problem in the nursing profession, it decreases nurse productivity, creates adverse patient outcomes, and overall lack of job satisfaction. It can be seen anywhere in the nursing profession. Bullying includes emotional and physical abuse as well as, putting others down, intimidation, spreading rumors, etc. “Research findings suggest that bullying frequently occurs among RNs [6] to the extent that up to 40% of nurses report an intent to leave because of it [7]; this is significant especially for new nurses, in that new RNs reported being bullied at work which resulted in 30% of
Workplace bullying is a growing problem in the American workplace and the Nursing Profession no exception. Addressing workplace bullying and its impact on the nursing profession is paramount to upholding patient safety and decreasing nursing attrition rates. Defining the problem is the first step in addressing it. In the past, workplace bullying was referred to as “Nurses eating their young.” There are many names for the various levels of workplace bullying like horizontal and lateral violence, hostility, mobbing, and verbal abuse. Bullying actions can take place overtly or covertly. Nurse-to-Nurse bullying is known to occur during interaction communications and manifests by withholding information, intimidation, threats, verbalizing harsh innuendo and criticism, and undermining personal values and beliefs (Rocker, 2008). Power disparities are also a source of bullying. For example, using charge position for controlling staff assignments, reporting coworkers for perceived lack of productivity, placing others under pressure to achieve impossible deadlines, and withholding knowledge for policies and procedures (Rocker, 2008). Outright actions of yelling at coworkers and refusing to mentor new staff with their practice are also considered bullying behavior.
Nursing is a profession that is based on the principles of caring and ethics. For years nursing has been continuously ranked as the most trusted profession (Riffkin, 2014). Nurses advocate for patients even if it means standing up to doctors and hospital administrators. Shockingly, for a job rooted in compassion, horizontal violence is a devastatingly common occurrence in the nursing profession. Horizontal violence, or workplace bullying, is defined as repeated incidences of aggressive behaviour intended to intimidate, degrade, humiliate, and offend a person or group of people (Ontario Nursing Association, 2012). Nurse-to-nurse aggression can range from yelling, withholding information, refusing to help, undermining a fellow nurse 's work ability and threatening unnecessary disciplinary action (Rocker, 2008). In Canada, 50% of nurses reported being verbally abused and 46% experienced hostility or conflict with colleagues (Statistics Canada, 2005). While many nurses are victims of bullying, many do not report the incidents and develop poor coping strategies. When a nurse does not report a bully, they are putting their mental health at risk. Nursing programs must implement educational programs for student nurses. They rely on safe clinical placements to develop and practice essential nursing skills. However, the toxic environment that bullying creates jeopardizes not only their education but their mental health as well, spurring on ramifications that last a lifetime.
Bullying can be categorized into two classifications, cover or overt. Overt is a behavior that is easily seen by other individuals such as name calling, physical threats, screaming, etc... Covert is not as easily seen amongst individuals. Some examples of covert bullying in the nursing world are getting an unfair assignment or another nurse withholding information from the new employee. This type of intimidation is also seen amongst students in their clinical setting. Covert treatment can be ignoring a student when he or she has a question about his or her patient, “freezing the individual out”. These many behaviors mentioned previously are what mainly take place in the hospital. A new nurse dealing with overt or covert bullying is very challenging and makes for a hostile environment. A fresh worker who is welcomed by his or her new staff is more likely to thrive in their job position. In Renee Thompson’s article, she gives the fact “newly licensed nurses who start their careers in supportive, nurturing environments are
Nurses are more likely to make errors in caring for their patients when they do not have the appropriate support from their coworkers. The demeaning behavior causes the person being bullied not to ask questions or seek assistance when they are unsure of a task. This leads to making assumptions in the care of the patient and unfortunately
Bullying is a serious issue that frequently happens during a nursing shortage. Since hospitals need to recruit new nurses when their nurses left. Therefore, new nurses are usually the target of bullying by the old nurses. Accordingly, bullying can cause even more burdens to the challenges that the novice nurses or new nurses have to face on the daily basis. As the findings in this research, the bullying acts may be on personal attack, competence or work tasks. And the consequences of this issue can cause diminished self-esteem, distress that lead to physical and emotional damages for these nurses; that is why more nurses want to leave their job because of job dissatisfaction, or else, they will put their patients' safety in danger (Olender,
“Paradoxically, the job sector with the mission to care for people appears to be at the highest risk of workplace violence. Nurses are among the most assaulted workers in the American workforce “ (NACNEP, 2007).Nurses Exposure to bullying, physical and nonphysical violence is commonly seen in the nursing profession globally and historically. Bullying and abuse against nurses results in low morale, job satisfaction, and can negatively impact nurse turnover and quality of patient care.