Bullying in the Nursing Profession - Research Paper Example

LATERAL VIOLENCE BULLYING IN THE NURSING PROFESSION Lateral Violence Bullying in the Nursing Profession Nursing practice has always existed with the intent of responding to the societal needs of the sick and the infirm. Nursing profession has been facing various, changes and challenges than ever before. One of the most critical issues facing nursing profession is bullying which indeed has raised issues of concern in the nursing profession. Bullying is whereby one person acts against another person in an abusive way, either verbally or emotionally. The abusive conduct can be humiliating, intimidating, threatening or can cause the work to be sabotaged thus resulting to failure to carry out the work assigned. Furthermore, it could also interfere with the health and safety of the individual involved. There are also various terms which can be used to refer to bullying such as horizontal hostility, aggression or incivility (PhiladeBlack, & Chitty, 2014). Bullying is hard to determine as how prevalent it is as most of it is never reported; recognized or documented when it occurs. More than a sixth of nurses experience bullying at the work place. About 90% of the nurses have also experienced incivility from their co-workers. Moresore, new nurses may also be at higher risk of experiencing bullying from the other nurses. In addition, bullying occurs among men and women nurses, it is alleged that about 61% of men bully their fellow men while 39% of women nurses bully their fellow women. Males tend to use physical means of bullying while females use more cerebral means such defamation, humiliation and betrayal of trust. Bullying in the nursing profession can be done by the management or the nurses. Some of the actions that signify bullying include constant criticism (despite a nurse trying to learn a new procedure or do a task in an exemplary manner the supervisor is never pleased and criticizes every move the nurse takes), denial of promotions and vacations (the nurse is not allowed to attend any event that matters to her or be promoted when she deserves), being shouted at and intimidated (despite of having excellent professional qualification and skills the nurse is taken as incompetent and is still degraded. Her work is undermined and she is given demeaning comments by the supervisors for the work she has done), and being assigned hard tasks (she is given tasks that she cannot comfortably perform, failure to do so, she will be humiliated among other nurses). Other actions of bullying in the nursing profession include, inappropriate joking at the nurses expense, verbal abuse, withholding of needed information about work or a patient, excluding a nurse on a social occasion and going through somebody’s special belongings( Matzo & Sherman, 2010) Reasons for bullying Nurses engage in bullying their fellow nurses because they may want to be in control and have power over others. In addition, the person responsible for bullying may have issues such as personality defects, for instance, being hideously charming, self-centred or he feels guilty of the injury that he has done to other nurses. Jealousy is another motive for bullying :a nurse who performs above the standards can be bullied by other nurses as she is viewed as a threat to others who perform minimally.Moreover,new nurses are bullied due to the fact that they fear reporting to the management as they think if they do so they might lose their jobs. The culture of nursing itself may also contribute to the bullying practice. Females are normally associated with nursing profession and they can act maliciously towards other female nurses. Men are also getting into the nursing profession but they can also be bullied by those who deem nursing as a women’s profession. There are many reasons why the nurses avoid reporting the acts of bullying since; low grade bullying may not be noticed, other fear reporting bullying in order to appear pretty good while other nurses may just decide to leave the work so as to avoid being bullied. Finally, administrative hierarchy also permits bullying and oppressive conditions such as inadequate staffing ratios, lack of lunch breaks and little recognition of nurse’s ability to think critically. Effects of Bullying in the Nursing Profession There are many consequences of bullying which can result to psychological, physical and financial problems. Physical ailments for instance are like headaches, alcers, and stress, lack of sleep, fatigue and loss of concentration. Psychological proofs are depression, excessive worry, stress helplessness and impaired social skills among others. Symptoms can affect the bullying nurse as well as the bullied nurse. The bullying nurse may be affected not only professionally but also personally. She may not go to work due to the physical and psychological consequences, while the bullied nurse may be affected financially as she will have to incur a heavy financial burden. The above stated conditions are grave as they can lead to adverse patient outcomes, as well as absenteeism. This will however affect the patients adversely. Moreover, leaving the job results to loss of expertise which in turn jeopardizes other operations. She will be unable to concentrate, have low morale thus decreased productivity. The nurse could also isolate herself from the rest thus leading to loss of communication on potential patients (Matzo & Sherman, 2010). The physical and psychological impacts can have a financial toil for the nurse as she will be away from the job. The nurse could also undergo emotional pain whereby her personal worth is lowered thereby having an effect on his physical and psychological development. When this occurs, the nurse could have far reaching impact on other staff and her patients too. The nurse might became disinterested in work or become fearful of reporting the bullying nurse when she makes mistakes thus destroying her moral code of conduct. She can also extend her stress, fear and anxiety experience to other co-workers or she can decide to leave the nursing profession all the same (PhiladeBlack & Chitty, 2014). How to Correct Bullying In the Nursing Professional The nurses should be educated on what bullying entails, so that one recognizes when bullying is about to occur, moreover, staff should also be notified that nobody deserves to be bullied. Zero tolerance laws and policies should be implemented to deal with the vice of bullying and communications should be passed across that no bullying is allowed .Codes of acceptable conduct should be specified. The leaders should also be trained on managing disruptive and inappropriate behavior. Managers in the nursing profession be vigilant and keen to detect signs that indicate bullying and consider such allegations as serious and urgent, thus they should be investigated promptly and processed according to the policies so that victims and perpetrators are counseled. It is critical that leaders in the nursing profession lead by example in tackling this issue instead of them being the purveyors of the vice. Vessey et al (2009) while in the process of evaluating the bullying problem in the nursing profession discovered that leaders or nurse managers were always or mostly guilty of spreading or promoting bullying activities. The managers and leaders in nursing should examine their actions and behaviours towards other nurses so as to figure out if indeed they are bullying others or promoting the problem. Also, they have to try and create guidelines for good professional behavior at the work place. Moreover, proactive education focusing on the various but specific leadership styles that discourage bullying should be given to new managers. There should be clear guidelines, for instance, nurses should be made aware of the Code of Ethics for Nurses especially provision 1.5 which states that nurses should maintain compassionate and caring relationships with colleagues and others with a commitment; to fair treatment of the individuals, to integrity hence preserving compromise, and to resolving conflict. Thus, nurses are expected to work professionally as stated in the provision. All bullying should be reported to the authorities, it does not matter whether it was experienced or witnessed. Individuals should keep copies of messeges, documents and other material as a form of evidence for bullying. Ethical View Point According to this situation of bullying in nursing profession a holistic approach could be the best. Whereby there is creation of a healthy organization environment by acknowledging that bullying does not exist in the nursing professional. Educating the staff about bullying, having policies outlined with zero tolerance, conducting work assessment in order to look for bullying signs and symptoms, and reporting to the relevant authorities of the problem is the best way to go( Catalano, 2012). My take on this issue is that, although bullying has been an issue of concern for decades in the nursing profession, there is need for individuals in the nursing profession to transform and start behaving in a moral and ethical manner. This is because; bullying consequences like physical, psychological and financial cases are hard to muddle through. Reference Catalano, J. T. (2012). Nursing now! Todays issues, tomorrows trends. Dossey, B. M., Keegan, L., & American Holistic Nurses Association. (2009). Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice. Matzo, M., & Sherman, D. W. (2010). Palliative care nursing: Quality care to the end of life. New York: Springer Pub. Co. PhiladeBlack, B. P., & Chitty, K. K. (2014). Professional nursing: Concepts & challenges. St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier. lphia: F.A. Davis Co. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and BartleBrunner, L. S., & Smeltzer, S. C. O. C. (2010). Brunner & Suddarths textbook of medical-surgical nursing. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. tt Publishers. Read More