Bullying and Harassment in Healthcare - Essay Example

? Bullying and Harassment in Healthcare Introduction: Bullying and harassment in healthcare workforce culture are not only common incidents in the present times, but also create significant conflicts in an organization among its members. Considering such incidents, organizations are concerned of taking effective measures involving policies and procedures in order to deal with such conflicts arising from bullying and harassment. However healthcare organizations need to consider awareness factors along with policies as only policies are not capable to prevent or deal with such issues. Dealing with such issues is primarily necessary in order to develop a healthy work culture within the organization (Bullying and harassment at work: a good practice guide for RCN negotiators and health care managers, n.d., p.1). The present study addresses the role of healthcare organizations and their team members in response to issues arising from bullying and harassment, relevantly discussing on the ANMC competencies as well. Bullying and Harassment in Healthcare Organization: Bullying generally involves making wrong use of one’s power to frighten or hurt the feelings of others who are less powerful. Such behavior is usually malicious and insulting in nature, and nurses in organization are most commonly the victims of such behaviors. Harassment is essentially different from bullying in that it involves intentionally affecting the self-respect of men and women working in organizations. Bullying and harassment are either targeted to individuals or they may affect individuals in groups. Although effects of such acts might vary with individuals, but in general, they negatively affect the self-respect and esteem of individuals and make it difficult for them to effectively perform while they are present in the organization (Barber, 2012, pp.299-300). It has been obtained that bullying and harassment has become more prevalent among the nursing workforce in the present times (Daly, Speedy and Jackson, 2004). While many nurses accept it considering it as part of the organizational culture, others find it intolerable, and hence lead to conflicts. The psychological and physical healths of the victims deteriorate as a result of such behaviors. Consequently, the quality of care in the organization also gets affected, along with poor job satisfaction of the employees, increased turnover, and professional disconnection (Vessey, DeMarco and DiFazio, 2011, pp.134-149). Thus it is essential that measures are considered to prevent and control such incidents to achieve enhanced performance and quality of care which holds the greatest priority in a healthcare organization. ANMC Competencies: It would be suitable to discuss the ANMC (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council) competencies that focus on the role of healthcare organization in addressing challenges of bullying and harassment in the work culture. The standards set by this council clearly states the assessment needs of competencies of nurses and the expectations that the organizations have from them in meeting the demands of effective healthcare delivery. Thus based on national competency standards, nurses have to deliver as per the legal policies of healthcare delivery, be accountable for their activities and performance, recognize practices that are unprofessional, works ethically, integrates organizational polices and guidelines along with the standards of the organization, maintain the organization’s culture, values and dignity, make effective use of available resources, integrates nursing knowledge and skills towards effective healthcare to patients, participates in improvement of healthcare quality, participates in the development of organization and profession contributing positively towards the profession of others as well, conducts assessment on nursing delivery, plans to achieve organizational goals in an integrated manner focused on continuity of care, responds effectively to changes in nursing behaviors and standards, assists others for better healthcare performance making effective communications, and also coordinates the healthcare activities towards effective health outcomes (National competency standards for the registered nurse, n.d.). From the above standards set for healthcare nurses, it can be understood that the healthcare organization makes it clear for the nurses to ensure that they are responsible and accountable for their activities and healthcare performances that also focuses on assisting others for development of profession and the organization, and hence bullying and harassment are not supported by such standards and need elimination from the system in case such behaviors are prevalent in a healthcare organization, and cause ineffectiveness of healthcare delivery. Role of Healthcare Organization to Address Bullying and Harassment Issues: Since bullying and harassment are against the standards of nursing and healthcare as declared by ANMC competencies, and affect the overall performance of the organization and healthcare delivery, hence it is the responsibility of the healthcare organization to consider measures addressing such issues and prevent the negative effects of such behaviors on healthcare delivery. Prevention model is one such model that has been designed and can be implemented by healthcare organizations for this purpose. This model involves intervention in the system before such incidents of bullying and harassment can occur. Awareness spread across an organization is primarily essential that reduces the risks of occurrence of such behaviors. Secondary prevention involves dealing with the issues if such incidents have already taken place in the organization. Thus the role of the organization in this regard is to detect the wrong behaviors and stop them from becoming worse (Vessey, DeMarco and DiFazio, 2011, p.150). Intervention programs can be planned by respective organizations based on training. Such programs include preparing questionnaires to study the negative behaviors among organizational employees or nurses intending to bully or harass others. Training of supervisors and managers is the primary role that the organization itself needs to consider in order to address such issues. Group work, meetings, meetings with individuals, or meetings with groups are necessary to be conducted to bring issues in front and the organization can make the employees realize the negative effects of bullying and harassment. It is the role of the organization to conduct training measures particularly in three major areas that include: policy acknowledgement and communication, stress management, and awareness of negative behavior (Einarsen et al, 2010, p.367). It is the role of the organization to have strict policies and regulations against acts of bullying and harassment. If bullying or harassment behaviors are reported, then the organization needs to consider actions immediately. The issues and complaints on such behaviors need to be taken seriously by the organization followed by thorough investigation to control such acts. Also it is the role of the organization to form such an organizational structure where employees are involved more in decision making processes, making them realize their importance in the organization, and allow them to have a sense of autonomy, along with the challenges that would encourage them more towards positive performances. With greater involvement in positive approaches, it can be expected that negative behaviors like bullying and harassment would be reduced (Workplace Bullying and Disruptive Behavior: What Everyone Needs to Know, 2011, p.4). Awareness needs to be spread by the organizations, be it through campaigns or other forms of communications. In this regard, the management of such organizations needs to take a significant role in supervising their staff and getting involved in problem solving instead of ignoring them. Open door policies often prove beneficial in preventing such negative behaviors that too need to be taken into concern by healthcare organizations. When a problem occurs, it is the role of the organization to study the nature of the problem and conduct surveys to understand employee and nurses’ attitudes and hence consider problem solving measures accordingly. Also, the management needs to be developed further to be able to deal with and manage conflicts arising from bullying and harassment in healthcare organizations. Individual contacts with organizational members and nurses also prove to be effective and need to be focused as one of the major roles of healthcare organizations to prevent negative attitudes (Workplace Bullying and Disruptive Behavior: What Everyone Needs to Know, 2011, p.4). Conclusion: It can be concluded from the above study that bullying and harassment are severe issues as far as healthcare organizations are concerned, with significant involvement of the nurses being both attackers and victims as well. ANMC standards clearly present that nurses are supposed to be competent for their healthcare delivery and hence healthcare organizations need to take such issues of negative behaviors seriously and play effective roles to take preventive measures and actions either preventing or correcting such issues, such that effective healthcare delivery can be achieved. References Barber, C. (2012). Use of bullying as a management tool in healthcare environments. British Journal of Nursing, Vol.21, No.5, pp.299-302. Bullying and harassment at work: a good practice guide for RCN negotiators and health care managers (n.d.). RCN. Retrieved on 30 September 2013 from: http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/193504/000926.pdf Daly, J., Speedy, S. and D. Jackson (2004). Nursing Leadership (Google eBook). Netherlands: Elsevier Health Sciences. Einarsen, S. et al (2010). Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice, Second Edition. United States: CRC Press. National competency standards for the registered nurse (n.d.). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Vessey, J.A., DeMarco, R. and R. DiFazio (2011). Bullying, Harassment, and Horizontal Violence in the Nursing Workforce. Springer Publishing Company. DOI: 10.1891/0739-6686.28.133. Workplace Bullying and Disruptive Behavior: What Everyone Needs to Know (2011). LNI. Retrieved on 30 September 2013 from: http://www.lni.wa.gov/Safety/Research/Files/Bullying.pdf Read More