Introduction. Bullies Exist In Every Work Place Within

The three main types of bullying are physical, verbal, and emotional. Physical bullying, according to the website typesofbullying.org, “In most instances, the aggressor is physically larger that the victim or may be within a group” (The Different Types of Bullying, 2013). Psychical bullying may involve the bully spiting, shoving, kicking, hitting, or punching the one being bullied (The Different Types of Bullying, 2013). Verbal bullying is where the bully only uses words to harm his victim (The Different Types of Bullying, 2013). The bully will taunt or tease his/her victim; and they will focus on the appearance of the one they are bullying (The Different Types of Bullying, 2013). Emotional bullying occurs when the bully is aggressive on an emotional level toward their victim (The Different Types of Bullying, 2013). This

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

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 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

In a profession where caring is the epicenter of the job, it is disconcerting to see a high occurrence of bullying in the nursing environment. Lateral bullying and lateral violence are terms used to describe bullying, uncivil behavior, disrespect, social devaluing, peer control and verbal, physical and emotional abuse occurring between nurses and or colleagues (Ceravolo et al., 2012). Abusive behaviors from a superior are considered vertical or hierarchal violence and are commonly seen when the superior attempts to control or bully the nurse using their superiority, often leaving the nurse feeling defenseless due to an imbalance in power and control (Broome & Williams-Evans, 2011). Some examples of bullying include harsh criticism, unfairly blaming others for mistakes, and withholding patient care information (Simons et al., 2011). In a recent study measuring workplace bullying, Simons, Stark and DeMarco (2011) found that the most common behaviors those feeling bullied experienced included being assigned workloads they felt were unmanageable, and being ignored or excluded by their peers.

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.

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

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.

Bullying can be overt behaviors such as criticism, belittling, being ignored, and spreading rumors, for example.

Hutchinson, M., Vickers, M. H., Wilkes, L., & Jackson, D. (2010). A typology of bullying behaviours: The experiences of Australian nurses. Journal of clinical Nursing, 19(15-16), 2319.

Of all professions, nursing has been consistently ranked as the most honest and ethical of all professions polled. In fact, this year our profession was ranked the most honest and ethical for the thirteenth year in a row (Sachs & Jones, 2014). But for our consistent rankings, there is a quiet festering problem that has been growing among us; a problem that has largely been disregarded as too infrequent to worry about or just paying your dues. The problem is “not new to nursing, but has been long ignored as an issue critical to the profession. As a result, the behaviors have been allowed to contaminate the work environment” (Longo, 2013, p. 951). Only in the last decade has substantial research been conducted across many cultures that shows this problem to be a widespread and serious problem (Ekici & Beder, 2014, p. 24). This problem is workplace bullying, also referred to as lateral/horizontal violence or vertical violence. This bullying, while seemingly trivial at times, can have broad and devastating consequences. Most notable of these effects of the consequences are employee productivity, mental and physical health, retention of staff, facility costs, and most importantly, patient safety (Ekici & Beder, 2014, pp. 25,31; Gaffney, DeMarco, Hofmeyer, Vessey, & Budin, 2012, p. 2). Bullying can be experienced by anyone at any level of the work place: graduate nurses, experienced nurses, charge

The scope and depth of the concept is vast. In addition to workplace bullying, there is school bullying, physical bullying, cyberbullying, sexual bullying, verbal bullying, and family bullying. The concept of bullying can be seen in many situations, but the use of workplace bullying is very specific to a place of employment. Furthermore, workplace bullying in nursing is seen in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and other medical facilities where nursing staff may be employed. On a broader level, workplace bullying impacts healthcare professionals in general wherever they may be employed. Workplace bullying outside of healthcare and nursing is also evident, especially in fields such as business and

BACKGROUND: it is alleged that in the history of nurses they have been victims of verbal abuse by doctors, colleagues, patients and their families. “As the toll of workplace bullying has become more widely known in all work settings, research has dramatically increased. Many North American studies focus on behavioral categories, causes, and typologies of individual responses “ (6)The damage and deprecations of verbal abuse can be devastating and last even years after the abuse. .Research that has focused on its consequences has found that it is both physiologically and psychologically

There are many types of bullying which is highly dependent on the nature of bullying. for example, the physical bullying may incorporate such behavior as hitting, pinching, kicking and any form of physical abuse considers physical bullying. The verbal bullying which incorporate spreading rumors, gossiping, insulting and teasing. Next which is the emotional bullying and this includes isolating and excluding other from the group. Finally, the cyber bullying which is another form of a violence practiced when online communication (Rai,2012). In addition, further elaboration for Physical bullying which happens when the bully practices physical aggression to force, threaten, or damage the sufferer. This is typically the easiest shape of

Bullying in the workplace is the topic that Heeman has addressed and evaluated with the aid of research from additional authors. Communication plays a major role in bullying when brought into the workplace and it can continue for extensive lengths of time if not managed and handled properly. The roles of bullying are included in Heeman’s report which are the bully, the target, and the bystander. The costs on the workplace can be threatening to the staffing, productivity and the overall work environment. Percentages and research are presented proving the amount of bullying that actually takes place in the workplace. Ways to combat the bullying are introduced into the report to include understanding and taking action to stop and prevent the bullying from continuing. Heeman concludes his report by mentioning that researchers need to focus their attention on finding solutions and ways to intercept bullying to lower the statistics and ratios.