Bullying Among Nurses: Understanding the Causes and Strategies for Prevention

Nurse bullying is a common problem. It can also be called nurse incivility or brutality on the side.

What is Bullying Among Nurses?

The American Nurses Association defines bullying as “repeated harmful actions meant to embarrass and offend the recipient and to cause distress to them and get major effects of bullying.” This definition is similar to a dictionary definition, which describes the abuse or mistreatment of someone vulnerable by a stronger person in a variety of settings. To become a licensed practical nurse, (by taking a study guide of prerequisite courses) it is also necessary to understand the prevention strategies that nurses use.

Workplace Bullying in Nursing Forms

Workplace bullying in nursing involves one individual displaying negative affectivity toward another. Negative behavior can be an overt act, like threatening another person, or a more subtle and insidious one, like refusing to work together in clinical settings & health care facilities.

Workplace bullying in nursing can take many forms.

• Belittling cruelly or brutally accuses a colleague, particularly in front of patients or other healthcare professionals.
• Minimizing – Telling someone who is fighting with “sucking it up.”
• Name-calling: Calling a coworker a “bad nursing”
• Yelling: The act of raising one’s voice to intimidate or even scare someone else
• Pushing, shoving, or other physical aggression toward a colleague
• Getting in the path of someone: Preventing them from going where they want.

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Other forms of professional nursing incivility that are more sly incorporated in a variety of healthcare settings:

• Ostracizing is the deliberate exclusion of a coworker from group discussions or activities meant to boost morale.
• Gossiping – spreading rumors about your colleague.
• Ignoring requests for help. Ignoring a nurse’s call for help, forcing them to perform dangerous tasks alone, or delaying quality of care until a backup nurse is available.

Workplace Bullying in Nursing: Strategies for Prevention

1. Acknowledge the problem. An issue that may affect every group involves workplace bullying in nursing. It thrives when left unreported. Leaders can take proactive action by recognizing that bullying is a systemic problem in their organization.
2. Adopt a policy of zero tolerance for vocational nurses who are bullies or promote bullying. By creating policies that outline how bullying should reported and dealt with, you set clear expectations for all vocational nursing personnel. This also conveys that caregivers are entitled to dignity and security in the workplace.
3. Reports should be taken seriously. To step forward and expose bullying, caregivers need encouragement.
4. Leaders should be trained to collaborate. An organization’s culture can affect whether nurses feel safe talking up against incivility. In a variety of health care, Leaders must model the collaborative, positive actions they anticipate from caregivers.
5. Increase interaction between HR and the nursing facility team. In certain businesses, caregivers may be nervous about reporting bullying behavior. Take a systemic approach to bullying. To create a supportive work environment, open transmission paths between professional nurses, nurse managers, and personnel in HR.
6. Work overload is one of the most common forms of workplace bullying experiences & anxiousness, exhaustion, and burnout, which can lead to a short temper and reduced empathy.
7. Encourage victims of bullying for counseling for their mental health wellness. Horizontal violence & lateral violence can have physical and emotional impacts, lowering productivity or self-confidence. Advise those who have been bullied to get treatment if appropriate.

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Make Healthcare More Inclusive

Caregivers deserve respect at work. Like night and weekend nursing programs (LPN program) which offers clinical practice, scope of practice, and hands-on experience to nursing students. Experienced nurses must avoid workplace bullying in nursing to give their patients excellent basic care to patients and prevent burnout in long-term care facilities. In a larger group, caregivers will be encouraged to collaborate, not compete, and treat each other as sources of strength and resilience when work stressors arise.

Inclusion in nursing begins with an inclusive nursing education. Find out to study a rewarding career in the nursing profession by enrolling in LPN programs for clinical experience, understanding vital signs & learning evidence-based practice. The accredited practical nursing program at Verve College (community college) in the United States offers thorough medical training that includes education in technical knowledge and the chance to make a living with compassionate professionals.