Workforce Bullying among Nurses in Australia - Case Study Example

Workforce bullying among Nurses in Australia Table of Contents Case 3 Bullying in the workplace 4 Results of workplace bullying 5 Australian Scenario 6 Conclusion 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 Case It was my first day at first job, I was quite enthusiastic about the fact that I would now be working on my dream work profile: that of serving patients. The thought made the hairs on my body to rise up. I got up and went to the hospital. I was directed to the HR manager who further introduced me to a senior nurse under whom I was supposed to work. She was my mentor in the hospital. After being taken to the nurse’s room, I was given a proper dress, I was overjoyed and thrilled at that moment but my happiness did not last long. As soon as I went out of the room my mentor came up with two other senior nurses and started making comments about my skin colour. Initially I did not take them seriously but eventually this became a daily affair. One day I was even humiliated in front of many patients and was occasionally made the laughing stock. I chose to stay mum on the subject and never reported it to my parents or friends. The abusing in the hospitals grew up day by day and one fine day I was seriously abused in front of one of my junior colleagues. Unable to gulp down the humiliation, I decided to report the instance to the HR manager but he said he was more interested in other important issues and advised me to handle these petty issues on my own. I was totally depressed and started having sleepless nights; I was so annoyed that I sometimes became rude to the patients. Due to this I used to have high blood pressure and as a result I took leave from work quite frequently. I also took leaves with pay cuts just for the reason that I did not want to face those group of bullying nurses. The things started taking a turn for the worse as my mentor came to know about my complaint to the HR manager. As revenge the entire group made up a falsified case against me for which I had no fault. I was reprimanded before the entire staff and humiliated badly. This was the last straw to break the camel’s back and I decided to resign from the job. This decision was extremely painful for me as it meant destroying a dream which I had nurtured as a child. My extent of frustration was so much that I decided to leave this profession forever and joined a lower paid job as a clerk in another organisation. Bullying in the workplace Workplace bullying is often described in the nursing literature as a phenomenon which attracts considerable attention all over the world. Workplace relations have shown profound effects towards the physical health, mental health and the general well being of the employees. It has also been found that nurses who have been exposed to bullying in the workplace have a higher chance of leaving the organisation and in some cases the nursing profession itself. (Daiski 2004 & McKenna et al, 2003) Workplace bullying has shown that those nurses who are affected by workplace bullying are less motivated towards their work which ultimately leaves a negative impact on customer service. Nursing is a very critical profession which involves high levels of motivation and high levels of bullying of nurses can lead to jeopardising efficient patient care (Coverdale & Balon, n.d.). In some cases there have been reports of sexual harassment of nurses by their superiors. (Kemchuchat et al, 2007) Workplace bullying is an international problem and while bullying is considered as the behaviour of an individual o9r a group characteristics contribute to its behaviour. The solutions to this problem lie in identifying and eliminating the organisational factors which allows bullying in the workplace. According to Duffy (1995), Horizontal Violence is defined as the hostile and aggressive behaviour of group members or individuals towards other group of members of a larger group. Results of workplace bullying Health Effects Bullying in the workplace has huge impacts on the psychological and the physical health of the victims. A high exposure to bullying increases the rate depression and anxiety among the victims. In extreme cases suicidal tendencies have also been reported among the clients. (Einarsen & Mikkelsen, 2003) Workplace bullying leads to higher instances of cardio logical disorders as the victims are often found to be suffering from high stress levels. The hostile work environment created by the bullies as well as the fear of becoming the next target leads to high stress levels among the nurses. This leads to a condition where nurses are de-motivated which ultimately leads to customer dissatisfaction in the workplace. Social Effects The victims of workplace bullying sometimes end up feeling ostracized at work apart from feeling socially isolated. In some cases the victim’s personality changes drastically and sometimes the outside relationships of the victims also suffer as a result of workplace bullying. Attrition A study by Curtis et al. 2007 showed that instances of horizontal violence and bullying in hospitals across Australia have led to a situation in which this profession is shunned by many students. This situation assumes significance as the country is already facing an acute manpower crisis in terms of well trained nursing professionals and such a situation could well mean more shortages of well trained nursing staff. (International Nursing review, Volume 56, Issue 1) Australian Scenario A research by the University of Western Sydney has found out that some nurses have abused patients and compromised on the hospital care as a strategy of their acts of bullying on other nurses. It is believed by some researchers that sometimes there is a complicated array of bullying which are being carried out by nurses within the Australian nursing system. These people set their targets and make the work lives of their victims miserable by enhancing the stress levels and by reducing the control of situations. In Australia extreme cases of bullying were reported from many provinces which lead to many nurses taking up other lower paid jobs or taking pay cuts of $40,000 a year. Man nurses have been reported that they constantly suffer from the physical and emotional stress as a result of abuse. This has led to nurses suffering from several stresses related disorders like panic attacks, chronic illness, weight fluctuations, alcohol abuse apart from depression. There was also a report of a suicide being committed by a nurse as a result of bullying. Bullying of nurses have been reported in many ways such as bully roistering on shifts together to find targets, withholding information, controlling work tasks apart from bullying and abusing patients for indirectly pressurising the nurses being targeted, covering and protecting up for each other, pinning up the blame for mistakes. In a few cases, bullies set up the situation so that the target nurse is responsible for the mistakes, eventually placing high stress on the already under resourced and overworked nurses. [Stevens, S. No date] A research by Associate professor Vickers which interviewed about twenty six nurses who were courageous enough to participate in the survey. These nurses reported about their experiences as victims of workplace bullying. The result revealed that the bullies always worked together in tandem against their targets. This particular strategy of working together enables the bullying nurses cover up and protect each other if there are any instances of complaints against them by the victims. This strategy also leads to a fear among other nurses that any complaint made against the bullying groups may lead to more troubles for them in their workplace. Moreover the victims fail to get support from their colleagues as they fear that any support to the victims may also lead to the supporting nurse’s becoming a target for bullying. This fear factors leads to a condition where the other non victimised nurses do not report against the bullying groups due to lack of fear. It has also been found that most of the bullies and the bullying groups are very well aware of the organisational set ups and hence they also know how to exploit the organisational rules towards their goal. Moreover with a majority of the victims being new to the organisation the victims are often left in a hopeless situation. [The Medical News, 2004] A new research reveals that a bullying culture among the nurses in large Australian teaching hospital was responsible for the high attrition rate of the nurses. The research found out that bullying was the main reason behind the high turnover rate of the nurses. Conclusion Bullying culture is like a slow poison which is corroding the image of the healthcare sector in Australia. The literature stated above shows how profound the effect of bullying can be on employees. Nursing leaders should take stock of the situation and take steps towards bringing an end to this situation. Some of the steps that can be taken are 1. Developing a mode of open communication in the organisation. 2. Ensuring non-clinical training for the nurses. 3. Ensuring that competency standards are maintained. 4. Making and enforcing stringent rules towards preventing bullying in the workforce. (Stevens, S. 2002). References Coverdale, J.H. & Balon, R. No date. Mistreatment of trainees: verbal abuse and other bullying factors. [Online]. Available at : http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/33/4/269 [Accessed on September 14, 2009]. Hawaii Nurses Association. August 2008. Horizontal Violence or beyond the bully. [Online]. Available at: http://www.hawaiinurses.org/news-a-publications/hna-news-archive/44-general-news/187-horizontal-violence-or-beyond-the-bully.html [Accessed on September 14, 2009]. Johnson S.N.2009. International Perspectives on workplace bullying among nurses: a review. [Online]. Available at : http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122200107/PDFSTART. [Accessed on September 14, 2009]. Kamchuchat et al. 2007 Workplace Violence Directed at Nursing Staff at a general Hospital in Southern Thailand.[Online]. Available at: http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/joh/50/2/50_201/_article. [Accessed on September 14, 2009]. Stevens, S. No Date. Nursing Workforce retention: Challenging a bullying culture. [Online], Available at : http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/21/5/189.pdf [Accessed on September 14, 2009]. The Medical News. November 18, 2004. Australian research sheds light on bullying in hospitals. [Online]. Available at : http://www.news-medical.net/news/2004/11/18/6382.aspx [Accessed on September 14, 2009]. Bibliography Hadikin.R, Driscoll., 2000. The Bullying Culture .Butterworth Heinmann. Robbins S,. 2007. Organizational Behavior. Pearsons Publications. Robert, P. V., Hearn, G., Southey, G., 1991. Organisational behaviour: life at work in Australia. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Wilkie, W., 1996. Bullying, from backyard to boardroom. Millennium Books: Australia. Read More