Disruption In Nursing

Bullying can produce and maintain a poisonous work environment. Nurses who bully can wear down the job satisfaction of their co workers which can result in a loss of productivity and increased absences in the workplace (Stokowski, 2010). Victims of bullying often have a feeling of impending doom and dread when they think about their upcoming work days. Each time the bullying reoccurs, the victims usually

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.

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.

Addressing workplace bullying is a complex issue. Two recommendations along with their respective strengths and weaknesses are outlined below. First develop a set of no tolerance policies and procedures that strictly enforces the standards and codes of conduct of nurses. The policy should be developed from the bottom up with nurses having input in setting up the processes for reporting, documentation, and punitive actions. Involving the nurses, as key stakeholders will enable the policy to be effective and tailored to their needs. The key strength in this recommendation is the incidence of these types of disruptive behaviors would decrease. Additionally, individuals would have a system set in place where they could anonymously report their grievances. However a weakness would be that unless the organizational culture is present in where victimized nurses feel safe enough to report, there will be a low number of

Bullying in the work place is a never a comfortable thing, especially for the victims. Nurses spend over half of their day at work, which is more than what they spend with their family. Therefore, it is important that the work force is safe from bullying and is accommodating to everyone. Bullying has been a problem in the work place for a number of years and the same goes for the nursing workforce. Bullying is a very disruptive behavior in the workplace and it can lower the morale among staff as a result. This type of disruptive behavior will cause nursing staff to call out on a regular basis, or even quit their jobs. Bullying can also lower the standard of the profession and when patients see such disruptive behavior, it also makes the profession looks bad. Moreover, bullying can be very detrimental to the nurses’ ability to care for their patients. It can have a major psychological effect on nurses, that they can loose

It is considered an abusive behavior that makes the person on the receiving end feel threaten, humiliated, intimidated and vulnerable which leads to lowered self-confidence and increased stress. The defining characteristic of bullying is that it normally intentional, targeted and persistent (Work Bullying Institute, 2014). Bullying can either be overt or covert. Examples of overt behaviors of bullying are criticism, gossip, shouting, put-downs and eye-rolling. On the other hand examples of covert behaviors of bullying are withholding of information, sabotage, unfair assignments, fabrication, talking about someone behind their back, and refusal to work with someone (Bailey, 2013). All of these behaviors lead to a disruptive work environment which increases stress, endangers patients and degrades the nursing profession. The question that arises here is: what triggers such toxic behavior to take place? Exploring the answer to this question is key to discovering the path that should be taken to reduce and prevent nurse bullying from

Workplace bullying is a widespread issue in which people need to be educated on in order to put an end to it. Its causes are complex and multi-faceted and yet preventable. Workplace bullying puts unnecessary strain on the employees It is the employer and organizations responsibility to provide a bully free environment for their employees. Employees should have the right to feel safe in their work environment and be free from workplace bullying. Employers need to be held accountable and have a plan in place to protect the employees from this type of violence. Unfortunately that is not always the case, in some instances the employer is the one doing the bullying. Workplace bullying carries many definitions in which will be

Bullying is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society. It is most commonly thought to be found in schools or online, but it is becoming increasing popular in the workplace. Organizations must establish anti-bullying policies to stop this detrimental behavior. Targets of workplace bullying often suffer from a multitude of health problems such as depression and anxiety. In this paper, we will examine the reasons why bullying has become so common in the workplace, the damaging effects, and what can be done to help stop this behavior. Bullying should be considered as a problem for the entire organization, not just an issue for the target.

Bullies exist in every work place within any field there is. There are individuals who were bullied as children who grow into ones, others who grow out of being bullies, and some who continue growing as bullies. The focus of this paper will be exploring the bullying dilemma in the work place as well as the various types of bullying one may witness within the work environment. To bring about a more focused image, the topic will be more specific on the occurrence of bullying in the health care industry and the different factors and individuals involved in this intimidating technique.

In today’s competitive world where every single person is trying to be better than his/her peers or subordinates, the instances of workplace aggression leading to workplace bullying and workplace harassment are very common. Work organizations are like any other social setting where scarce resources, competition, time constraints to complete goals, personality of individuals often leads to workplace bullying and workplace harassment. Bullying and harassment are situations where a worker or supervisor is systematically mistreated and victimized by fellow workers or supervisors through repeated negative acts like insulting remarks and ridicule, verbal abuse, offensive teasing, isolation and social exclusion, or the constant degrading of ones’s work and efforts (Einarsen). The literature has shown that employees who are victims of workplace bullying and harassment show more negative well-being (anxiety, depression, irritation, psychosomatic complaints) and tend to be neurotic and less agreeable, conscientious and extravert. Edelmann and Woodall (1997) found some initial effects of bullying include: a loss of confidence (reported by 44.2 per cent); physical ailments (38.4 per cent); and stress (37.2 per cent). Most long-term effects included physical or psychological ill-health (53.5 per cent), inability to cope (21.5 per cent), and low self-esteem (19.8 per cent). Furthermore

Nurses in particular encounter conflict and usually have no understanding of how to resolve it, which is a major problem health

Thus, bullying is a methodical operation of interpersonal destruction that endangers a person’s health, career, and job. Furthermore, it is a non-physical, non-homicidal manner of violence and abuse, and it causes severe emotional harm. Although workplace bullying is not illegal, it occurs four times more than sexual

Bullying can bring significant damage to the victim’s wellbeing, which in extreme cases leads to suicide. Regarding a research conducted by Toni Mellington, an Australian health psychologist, there is a direct negative relationship between bullying and health. (Gregor 2015) Employees who claimed to have been bullied reported poorer health, with an increase in severity of bullying increasing the chance of poorer health. The finding also suggested that the experience of merely witnessing bullying can also have a negative impact on one’s health, backing up the fact that bullying affects not only the individual but the entire firm.

Thus, bullying is a methodical operation of interpersonal destruction that endangers a person’s health, career, and job. Furthermore, it is a non-physical, non-homicidal manner of violence and abuse, and it causes severe emotional harm. Although workplace bullying is not illegal, it occurs four times more than sexual harassment or racial discrimination in the workplace (Namie, 2015). Additionally, bullying is a destructive, silent epidemic that thoroughly

Workplace bullying, often subtly allowed by organizational leaders contributes to work environment of psychological threat that reduces organizational performance and restricts personal and group commitment.