Introduction
According to Johnson & Rea (2009), bullying in the nursing workplace is a major problem. Based on the data collected by researchers, it is evident that 23.7% of the sample surveyed indicated that they had experienced workplace bullying in the last six months. The article by Johnson (2009) supports this viewpoint since it concludes that bullying is rampant and negatively affects nurses by demoralizing them and affecting their work performance. The most common form of bullying in the workplace is the use of power by superiors against subordinates. The definition of the word bullying means the use of superior strength or power to manipulate another person into doing what the powerful person wants. In particular, senior nurses use bullying as a form of social control over newer nurses (Berry, Gillespie, Gates, & Schafer, 2012). This paper will provide an overview of bullying in the nursing profession, its negative effects, and solutions.
Background
According to Dellasega (2009), a common form of bullying in nursing is relational aggression. The article states that senior nurses usually exhibit relational aggression towards their subordinates. This description is not always true; however, senior employees will wield more power as compared to junior employees. Junior employees also happen to work under a senior employee and mainly strive to be in good terms with their seniors. In most cases, the bullied juniors are fresh graduates who do not understand the work environment (Dellasega, 2009). This means that part of their job descriptions may require following orders from the senior employee.
Typically, the level of qualifications and the employee’s job description determine superiority. A doctor working in a hospital reports to the hospital superintendent. In this case, the superintendent is the superior employee. Superiority can also be determined according to period of employment at specific workstation. This means that nurses posted for a long time in a particular job station are senior as compared to recently employed graduate nurses. In some cases, it is important to note that social connections determine superiority. Therefore, a nurse with close relationships with senior bosses may be considered more superior as compared to another employee with a similar job description. From the above argument, it is evident that a nurse’s workplace seniority depends on numerous factors.
Purpose statement
The purpose of this study was to explain how bullying takes place in the nursing field and provide possible solutions to this issue. Nursing is a profession that involves the handling of people who are not in perfect health. Mistakes made by nurses can therefore have serious consequences if they are unable to provide proper care for the people under their responsibility. Bullying in the workplace is a factor that can lead to physical and psychological issues such as depression, loss of self-esteem, and suicide. In turn, these negative effects usually reflect in the nurse’s quality of work and workplace productivity over time (Johnson, 2009). It is therefore important to identify ways in which bullying takes place and come up with ways of solving the issue.
Review
Hutchinson, Vickers, Jackson, & Wilkes (2006) argue that bullying is a systematic way of harming an individual by using superior power against them. This implies that bullying is a form of non-physical violence. In most cases, the victim is helpless and has no choice other than to accept and complete the bully’s orders. However, the surprising thing is that bullying is not a crime. There are usually no anti-bullying laws in many countries. This is because it is very difficult to describe bullying in many situations. In some cases, an employee may feel the pressure of added responsibilities but they are unable to talk because of fear of disappointing their seniors. Furthermore, junior nurses may be afraid to speak up against bullies for fear of losing employment.
In many cases, people considered as bullies may not be fully aware that their actions are causing harm to other people. Many organizations have cultures that encourage bullying. It is common for an employee to be considered resourceful if they take up extra responsibilities. Bosses may assign such an employee extra duties without realizing that such actions are causing harm. Bullying is up to four times more common than sexual harassment or racial discrimination in the workplace. This raises a very serious problem since it can result in emotional and mental problems (Johnson, 2009).
Implications for nursing practice
Bullying in the nursing workplace can take place in a number of ways. One of the most common is the overworking of a single employee or a group of employees. This form of bullying may result in the superior assigning unfavorable shifts to a particular employee. Bullying can also take place in the form of public humiliation. Humans make mistakes and people usually learn from making mistakes. However, a junior nurse can be bullied by being publicly humiliated for a mistake. Ideally, the superior should issue a warning or reprimand the employee at fault privately. A superior employee can also humiliate an employee by making them do tasks that are beneath them; such making a nurse clean the floor would be wrong if there are cleaners employed to do the job. A superior employee can also buy a junior employee by making the junior employee perform the senior employee’s tasks. This is usually done because the senior employee knows that the junior employee cannot complain. In such situations, the bullied employee is forced to make personal sacrifices in order to accommodate the senior employee’s demands.
Effects of bullying
Bullying has a number of negative effects on the victim, patients, and perpetrator. The nursing profession is a stressful environment since nurses are under pressure to deliver their services. This is because they are dealing with patients who are not in perfect health and the nurse’s actions have a direct implication on the patients recovering. This essentially means that there is no room for error for nurses. Bullying in the nursing profession works to increase the pressure on the nurse (Johnson, & Rea, 2009). This may have direct effects on the patient. When the nurse is a bullying victim, they are not able to perform their duties properly and as a result, patient care suffers. Psychological problems are also associated with bullying. It is important to note that bullied nurses might develop esteem issues since they believe that they are targets because of a personal problem. This can result in them not believing in their abilities, which again leads to patient care suffering. The nurse’s relationships with other workmates and family also suffer (Johnson, 2009).
Bullying also possess adverse negative effects since it leads to a situation where a nurse responsible for a patient’s life is made uncomfortable in the work environment. Therefore, the bully essentially endangers the lives of patients under the nurse’s care. By making nurses uncomfortable in the workplace, they are unable to perform their duties to the best of their abilities. This outcome is undesirable for patients since bullied nurses cannot offer the required level of care (Johnson, 2009).
Research has shown that bullied nurses are more likely to exhibit anti-social behavior, depression, work output reduction, tardiness, as compared to nurses who did not experience bullying (Laschinger, Wong, & Grau, 2012). The problems associated with bullying mean that the victim is not able to perform to the best of his or her abilities. This is particularly dangerous in situations in which the person is responsible for the wellbeing of other people. The person can take out his or her frustrations on people under their care or perform poor quality work that endangers people as with the case with nursing (Johnson, 2009).
Addressing bullying in the workplace
There are a number of ways to tackle bullying in the workplace. Many times, bullying takes place because of ambiguous or unclear rules and job descriptions in the workplace. If it is not clear to an employee what they are expected to do at work, it opens up room through which their superiors can exploit them. It should be clear in a nurse’s job descriptions what they are supposed to do and what they are not supposed to do. There should also be clear regulations in the workplace that guide employees to understand what is expected of them. If the rules were clear, it would be difficult for a senior to ask a junior for something that goes against the rules. This acts as a guide for all nurses ensuring that they work collaboratively (Cleary, Hunt, & Horsfall, 2010).
Apart from having clear guidelines and job descriptions, it is also important to have a reporting mechanism that is effective. Despite there being rules and regulations, some people will break them. It is therefore important to have a proper working mechanism that allows bullied employees to report the bullies. According to Cleary, Hunt, & Horsfall (2010) this is effective since it provides the bullied employees with the right channels through which to express their problems. After the factors that encourage bulling in the workplace have been resolved, it is important to address cases of nurses who have suffered bulling in the workplace. The most important thing in recovery is to make the victims aware that they are victims and not the cause of bulling. Counseling is very important in helping nurses to deal with issues arising from bullying. It helps in addressing some of the psychological effects of bullying such as a reduction in work morale and motivation (Cleary, Hunt, & Horsfall, 2010)
Future implications
This study has major future implications in helping people to identify bullying in the places of work. It also provides solutions aimed at addressing the problem. This can be imperative for any workplace that has discovered the problem. This will prevent such places from experimenting with untried methods of solving the problem in the short term. This will ensure that they eradicate the problem quickly before it can become a disaster.
Conclusion
In conclusion, bullying is wrong regardless of the situation. It is immoral to use one’s power at the expense of another person. People should have the choice to do things and the fact that a person is superior does not entitle them to making improper demands from their juniors. Bullying in the workplace is more common than many people would want to admit. Bullying is different depending on the workplace. It is therefore important to identify opportunities and occurrences of bullying in the workplace and eliminate the vice. This ensures that all employees working in an organization feel respected and is therefore able to perform their duties to the best of their ability.
References
Berry, P. A., Gillespie, G. L., Gates, D., & Schafer, J. (2012). Novice nurse productivity following workplace bullying. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 44(1), 80-87.
Cleary, M., Hunt, G. E., & Horsfall, J. (2010). Identifying and addressing bullying in nursing. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 31(5), 331-335.
Dellasega, C. A. (2009). Bullying among nurses. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 109(1), 52-58.
Hutchinson, M., Vickers, M., Jackson, D., & Wilkes, L. (2006). Workplace bullying in nursing: towards a more critical organisational perspective. Nursing inquiry, 13(2), 118-126.
Johnson, S. L. (2009). International perspectives on workplace bullying among nurses: a review. International Nursing Review, 56(1), 34-40.
Johnson, S. L., & Rea, R. E. (2009). Workplace bullying: Concerns for nurse leaders. Journal of Nursing Administration, 39(2), 84-90.
Laschinger, H. K. S., Wong, C. A., & Grau, A. L. (2012). The influence of authentic leadership on newly graduated nurses’ experiences of workplace bullying, burnout and retention outcomes: A cross-sectional study. International journal of nursing studies, 49(10), 1266-1276.
