Bullying: Nurses Do What?
Judith Meissner, now professor emeritus at Bucks County
Community College in Pennsylvania, famously wrote in
1986, “Nurses eat their young” (Meissner, 1999). She was
specifically referring to experienced nurses’ treatment of
new nurses. Studies have found that as many as 60% of
new nurses who leave their first position within six
months do so in response to some form of verbal abuse
or harsh treatment from a colleague.
“Nurses must realize
that their silence
equals complicity
in the face of
bullying and aberrant
behavior; standing
up to bullies and
advocating for a
culture of kindness,
civility, and
compassion for
both patients and
staff are in the best
interests of
everyone.”
Surveys say that as many as 85% of
nurses have been bullied at work
(Colduvell, 2017). The American Nurses
Association (ANA) defines bullying as
“repeated, unwanted harmful actions
intended to humiliate, offend, and cause
distress in the recipient” (Colduvell,
2017). Bullying is a subset of the broader
group of behaviors referred to as
workplace incivility.
The literature reveals that bullying
between nurses—also called lateral
violence—is often the reason a nurse
leaves the job, if not the profession.
Why is incivility such a widespread issue
in this “most trusted” profession? Cheryl
Woelfle and Ruth McCaffrey speculated
on why nurses bully other nurses in
their 2007 Nursing Forum article,
“Nurse on Nurse.”
“Nurses often lack autonomy,
accountability, and control over their
profession… this can often result in
displaced and self-destructive aggression
within the oppressed group,” say Woelfle
and McCaffrey (Colduvell, 2017). It would be grossly
unfair to characterize all experienced nurses as bullies,
but bullying among nurses is undeniable. The costs
associated with such incivility can be great, including
burnout, turnover, and decreased job satisfaction. In their
study in Journal of Nursing Administration, Patricia Lewis
Smokler and Ann Malecha estimate the annual cost of
workplace incivility to be almost $12,000 per nurse
(Smokler and Malecha, 2011).
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Bullying is often met with silence. While the profession
and the healthcare industry tackle the problem, individual
nurses need to be part of the solution. “Nurses must
realize that their silence equals complicity in the face of
bullying and aberrant behavior; standing up to bullies and
advocating for a culture of kindness, civility, and
compassion for both patients and staff are in the best
interests of everyone,” writes Kathleen Colduvell, RN,
BSN, BA, CBC on Nurse.org (Colduvell, 2017).
Nurses who step forward to report bullying, however,
often feel their concerns are not addressed. A nurse
describes her experience:
“I was bullied by a veteran nurse who despised the fact I
was young and moving up the chain of command. She
spent countless hours of overtime stalking my charts,
finding any error she could, slandering my reputation to
other nurses, and even threatening to take my license.
When I complained, I was told to keep my head down
and ignore her complaints and threats. This caused me to
transfer to another department.”
Workplace Violence
While bullying is predominantly verbal in nature, physical
violence presents another threat where nurses are
unfortunately overrepresented as victims. Violence in
healthcare is so prevalent that OSHA has published
“Preventing Workplace Violence: A Road Map for
Healthcare Facilities” (OSHA, 2017). The following is a
sampling of the resources and publications addressing this
issue point to the prevalence of the problem:
• Workplace Violence Toolkit, ENA
• Model “State” Bill: “The Violence Prevention in
Health Care Facilities Act,” ANA
• Managing Disruptive Behavior and Workplace
Violence in Healthcare, ASIS International
Healthcare Security Council
• Incivility, Bullying, and Workplace Violence, ANA
• Violence in Health Care Facilities, ECRI Institute
• Preventing Violence in Healthcare: Gap Analysis,
Minnesota Department of Health