The Cost of Incivility

High employee turnover, where workers frequently leave and must be replaced, leads to increased spending on recruitment and training and can indicate management problems. Employees often have good reasons for moving on but if too many are leaving an organisation, can be very disruptive.

Nurses actively preserve the dignity of people through practiced kindness and respect for the vulnerability and powerlessness of people in their care… This vulnerability creates a power differential in the relationship between nurses and persons in their care that must be recognised and managed.7 A diagram representing a continuum of professional behaviour provides a picture of therapeutic versus non-therapeutic behaviour in the relationship between the nurse and the persons in their care.8

“The first step in teaching nurses how to decrease bullying by others is to help them understand what to do and what not to do when confronted by a bully” (Rocker, 2008, Education, para. 13). Nurses need to be aware of how to recognize horizontal violence, and how to be able to stop it. Furthermore, Baltimore (2006) explained that nurses need to try and resist the temptation of participating in gossip which could ultimately result in people losing respect for nurses (p. 35). Nurses also need to be respectful and value differences among other nurses. Each nurse is unique and may have different ways of implementing his/her type of care. Therefore, it is crucial that nurses respect these differences (Rocker, 2008, Policy, para. 14). If nurses are able to be consciously aware of these small things, it can make a huge difference on how they treat other coworkers, and how others view them. Not only is it important for nurses to understand what horizontal violence is, but managers of hospitals need to be well educated of this as well. Brunt (2011) stated that managers have a key role in preventing and altering horizontal violence in the workforce. It is important that managers create an environment where staff members feel comfortable coming to the managers with concerns. Managers need to be educated about how to deal with the negativity of horizontal violence (p. 7). Managers can improve relationships, trust, and productivity and reduce tension by

In a profession where others' health and well-being are priority, there leaves room for neglect of those who are delegated to care for these people. As a professional nurse, there are many obstacles that arise and affect the care provided to a patient, as well as the livelihood of the nurse. The current deteriorating and unsafe staffing conditions in hospitals and other institutions prompts workplace advocacy as the universally appropriate concept for maintaining professional nursing practice.  Common

Incivility, Is the rudeness and the tension among the employees. The new employees are expressing rudeness by being rude to those that are older and not working together as a team in order to discuss the best route for their residents. There is tension due to the mistreating of Mr. Hill and the unexpected reduction of hours even though they need help covering

An underlining principle that forms all nursing practice is respect for the inherent dignity, worth, unique attributes, and human rights of all individuals. (Jimenez-Lopez, Roales-Nieto, Seco, Preciado, 2016) Nurses are to always treat all patients with dignity. For example, closing doors before you start providing patient care. It’s also essential as a nurse to respect patients regardless of their background, race, culture, value system, or spiritual belief. (Jimenez-Lopez, et al., 2016)

At the same time, workplace incivility happens between colleagues and between manager and subordinates, it is happening almost every day in healthcare settings such as in hospital and clinics where workers are directly uncivil to disrespect each other. For instance, when a nurse is deviant or does not follow the supervisor intensely because of differences in opinion or an act of retaliation when the manager is being rude, treating their staff with rough words, discourtesy, and lack respect to his staff, there are also times when the uncivil behavior is not intentional or

A basic part of modern age humanity is dignity. It is self-imposed pride that is susceptible to damage through the verbal and physical actions of others. Hospital and clinical settings can leave a client’s dignity vulnerable. It is where people, now clients, are weak and in some cases unable to function like they once did. This can wound their dignity, but it is the duty of nurses to preserve it. Through respect, support, and by relieving pain and suffering, nurses work to preserve the dignity of their clients. Likewise, nurses are able to easily damage the dignity and integrity of their clients through inappropriate behaviour, a lack of respect, and being irresponsible while on the job. A passage published by a hearing tribunal from the College

Key words and terminology in the article search included hostility, nursing turnover, nursing attrition, nurse aggression, bullying, and nurse hostility. Specific key words that were used to narrow down the search included incivility, nurse turnover, lateral violence (LV), horizontal violence (HV), disruptive behavior (DB), and horizontal hostility (HH). The publication date range was adjusted to 2012 through 2017. The following literature review probes into the research of incivility to explore the connection with nursing turnover and patient care.

Acts of incivility such as bullying, lateral violence, or harassment in the work place negatively affects nursing performance, mental health, and retention within an organization or even the profession of nursing (Warrner, 2016). A policy in the American Nurses Association (ANA) proclaims that the nursing profession will not tolerate violence of any kind from any source (ANA, 2015b). The Code of Ethics for Nurses by ANA requires nurses to promote an ethical environment and culture of civility with an emphasis on treating all parties with dignity and respect (ANA, 2015a). A study conducted in a rural Kentucky hospital’s medical- surgical units concluded that educational trainings in itself did not reduce the frequency of experiencing incivility in their unit (Armstrong, 2017). Nevertheless, nurses in the study reported that educational trainings increased their ability to recognize and appropriately respond to workplace incivility (Armstrong, 2017).

Nursing is an occupation in which professionalism (or lack thereof) can have a significant effect on not only patients and their health, but the nurse’s relationships with colleagues, patients’ families and even their community. A nurse must exemplify professionalism, especially in an environment that creates increased risk for loss of life or further injury. There are many aspects that are involved with professionalism in nursing, and many expectations set up on the nurse.

Civility in the work place, or the lack thereof, has been identified as a growing problem within many professions in today’s society. Often referred to as lateral violence, this occurrence is no exception in the nursing profession. It is also known as ‘horizontal violence’ or ‘workplace bullying (Coursey, Rodriguez, Dieckmann, & Austin, 2013). In this evidenced-based paper, information will be provided in an effort to identify causes of lateral violence in the workplace and how to encourage civility.

Nurses continually strive to bring holistic, efficient, and safe care to their patients. However, if the safety and well-being of the nurses are threatened or compromised, it is difficult for nurses to work effectively and efficiently. Therefore, the position of the American Nurses Association (ANA) advocate that every nursing professional have the right to work in a healthy work environment free of abusive behavior such as bullying, hostility, lateral abuse and violence, sexual harassment, intimidation, abuse of authority and position and reprisal for speaking out against abuses (American Nurses Association, 2012).

Being respectful and considerate to your patient is necessary for providing excellent patient care. It is also important to be respectful and considerate to your colleagues; arriving on time, being a team player, doing above the minimum as often as you can are all excellent ways to show this. It is essential to ensure that the workplace is an “environment in which all colleagues enjoy equal respect and where they can advance to their full potential.” (Professionalism initiative, 2012) If everyone treated their colleagues with respect, it would make the workplace very hospitable and help provide better patient care, which is the main purpose of nursing. An environment without respect can become hostile and impair the growth of your colleagues and yourself which can lead to giving substandard care to your patients and their families.

Many companies look to salaries and benefits as the first places to cut back when looking to make changes that involve cost-saving. When this happens, it is inevitable that some employees will leave the company to seek employment elsewhere. The employees that remain, whether they stay voluntarily or because they could not find employment elsewhere, are often resentful. Motivation decreases, taking job performance along with it. Employees lose their company loyalty and may even become angry enough to purposefully sabotage the company.