Introduction
Exposing employees to workplace bullying has been underlined as a major cause of stress and other psychological problems in today’s organizations. Studies show that the leading cause of suicidal decision among employees is bullying (Trépanier, Fernet & Austin, 2013). According to clinical results, the impacts of exposing employees to workplace bullying such as mental illness, maladjustment, social isolation, depression, frustration, nervousness, and irritation remain widespread. While single acts of harassment and aggression are common in daily interactions at working environment, they are linked to several mental complications when victims are subjected to bullying experience on a continuous basis. Exposure to psychological and deliberate harm triggers severe emotional reactions such as despair, vulnerability, fear, and shock. In addition, ill-treatment associated with workplace bullying changes the perception of employees about their working environment, as they develop feelings associated with self-questioning and lack of confidence.
This essay described bullying as a common psychological problem that I have experienced in my previous working environment. Although I was not a constant victim of bullying, I have previously worked in an organization where this discriminative treatment was rampant among employees working in lower rankings. This essay also incorporate classroom learned concepts that explain the relationship between bullying and psychological impacts among junior employees (specifically nurses) working in a busy healthcare facility.
Workplace Bullying Experience
Although bullying of nurses in the healthcare sector has been recognized, a culture of quietness prevails in several working institutions. This was the case in my previous working environment, whereby I realized that bullying was a normal daily trend. Although the trend has preciously contributed to resignation, mental conditions, suicide and physical conflicts in the workplace, a lasting solution is yet to be established if several institutions have leaders who are the main perpetrators (Moore, 2013).
In my previous working environment, the primary targets of bullying were inexperienced nurses and newly recruited employees. The circumstances were elusive and included sarcastic remarks and assignment of duties while being issued with wrong patient record. Among the victims, these practices damaged their self-esteem while corroding their sense of relief and confidence required in delivering professional results in a busy working environment. As Rodwell’s (2013) study illustrates, the impacts of bullying are evident in the target individual. In most cases, the target victims retracted from busy working schedules in order to relieve increasing anger. In his study, Rocker (2012) criticizes the relationship inhibited between managers and nurses in healthcare institutions. Revisiting several cases of oppression, Rocker insists that leaders use their position to exploit junior workers. Several years after this unethical practice was reported in early 19th Century, desirable improvements have not been reported in spite of numerous revolutions being reported in the medical field.
As reports of workplace bullying increase in wider working environment, researchers have intensely increased. For instance, Demir and Rodwell’s (2012) research drew their attention on behavioral causes, classifications, and types of individual reaction to bullying. This research explains that, although bullying is rampant, several managers create a silence culture that prevents possible solution to the problem. Even though bullying is considered as an exceedingly explicit behavior, usually an insidious violence prevails in workplace. This makes target employees’ to isolate from work colleagues in fear of social exclusion and being targets for mistreatment. Possible consequences of bullying explained by Flateau-Lux (2013) include high staff turnover, absence from duties, job dissatisfaction, and compromised performance. Among newly recruited employees, these discriminative activities result in early resignation a few months after recruitment.
According to Flateau-Lux (2013), workplace bullying is a threat to patient outcomes and quality of services delivered. Success in patient care manifests in working environments that promote open interactions among staffs and respectful professional relations. A working environment that tolerates bullying also promotes destruction of proficient communication. In my previous workplace, various terms have been employed to describe bullying, and they include indirection aggression, workplace aggression, literal ferocity, and social violence. In most cases, the leading managers have employed these terms when issuing notice of warning to individuals engaged in this form of indiscretion.
During the period that I worked in this healthcare institution, I experienced various reports of mistreatment among new and existing nurses from nursing department. Most of the cases were not reported to the management for relevant intervention. Within a period of two months, two nurses resigned from their positions and sought for employment elsewhere. In order to understand the cause of their distress, I decided to interview the distressed nurses that opted to resign. The findings were compiled in the form of relevant data that assisted in the compilation of a report on this psychological problem that prevails in several healthcare institutions. In their story, the affected nurses that agree to participate in the interviews described their encounters as bullying victims. In particular, I sought to gain an understanding on how the nurses became victims of victimization in their respective working positions. In addition, I inquired from the affected victims on the best ways of ending bullying while protecting the nurses and patients.
In one such experience, the affected nurses explained humiliating workplace experience that forced her to resign eventually. As I realized, his experience was comparable to my encounter when I joined the institution as a new staff. As a new employee, my colleague was ill. Therefore, I was assigned to work with another coworker that had worked in the organization for the last eight years. This vast experience, together with support from her fellow staffs in the institutions, increases her confidence. During my first day of working with her, I was stopped several times because I failed to comply with her standards. Every move I made was accompanied by a retort of “that is wrong.” As I later realized, this nurse had employed this aggressive working approach without intervention from the senior managers. Many organizations fail to intervene against experienced healthcare providers because they provide desirable results. As long as the aim is to improve new employees’ performance, bullying is condoned. One day, I documented all the bullying incidents and forwarded the report to the manager. However, this report did not stop the bullying, as I was blamed for being imperfect. The manager further asked me to confront my colleague in order to gain respect from her. At this point, I felt left out. I developed terrified feelings, as previously I had never experienced this form of treatment. When I turned to colleagues for support, I was denied a chance to highlight my issue. At the end of the day, I learned to stay with my problems while ignoring external retorts. As long as I remained focused on my duties and remained confident that I was doing the right thing, I had to reject any intrusion and intimidation. With time, I was able to regain my lost dignity. However, similar experiences distress several employees that opt to resign because of increasing psychological impact of the bullying.
In this healthcare institution, most of the victims of bullying vividly explained the humiliation and ridicule they received from experienced staffs. One of these victims explains how a close working colleague attacked her. This molester, according to the victim, selected her to be her hammering ram. On five occasions, she released her disapproval. This disapproval took place through swearing to her, issuing criticisms at every adopted role, belittling her, and issuing negative remarks. Another new nurse recalls a humiliating incident when another staff told her: “you have no choice but to listen to me.” According to this victim, the experience was confusing and embarrassing. The same staff was also a victim of name-calling. At one incident, she recalls being referred as inexperienced idiot.
The psychological Impact of Bullying
Studies have established that exposure to long-term bullying is the leading cause of posttraumatic disorder (PTSD) among distressed workers (Losa, 2012). Workers are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after manifesting various traumatic symptoms. These symptoms include haunting painful memories and uncomfortable reminders after recalling a certain experience (Losa, 2012). According to Losa, patients avoid instances linked with trauma. In addition, such victims may fail to portray sufficient emotional reaction by reducing their interest to joyful activities. As Losa further explains, PTSD promotes aversion, high tension, and bad temper. Such patients portray exaggerated reaction to minor stimuli while reacting physically when reminded of the past painful experiences.
Control of bullying
Utilizing a blend of instructions, information, and training has proved effective in controlling bullying. According to Laschinger (2010), development of a positive working culture minimizes bullying cases in the working environment. Because bullying is associated with uncertainty and conflict of roles, the staffs should comprehend their respective roles while acquiring the right skills in order to perform their respective duties.
Employees charged with the responsibility of managing junior staffs require adequate training to enforce their supervisory roles effectively. Lack of sufficient training is one of the leading causes of bullying in several organizations by supervisors that use inappropriate managerial techniques. Training is aimed at perfecting employees in areas where skills are insufficient. According to King-Jones (2011), reinforcement of these skills should take place through constant refresher training.
Laschinger (2010) explains that, in some instances, the staffs are advised to file complaints to the unions protecting their rights. However, filling such complaints may be impossible in organizations where bullies are top managers. In such cases, the employees are required to file complaints with external employees’ protection unions. When filling such cases, detailed presentation should encompass times of occurrences, date, and scenarios that lend to the events. The bullying victims may also file lawsuits in court against the offender. Although United States does not provide lawful safeguard against bullying, the legal cases are filled based on racial discrimination, harassment, sexual abuse, and unlawful termination (Rodwell & Demir, 2012).
The top management has the sole responsibility of controlling bullying in organizations. In many cases, the top management have ignored such cases or taken lenient actions against bullies. Such actions promote persistent bullying. Top-level management commitment portrays their effort towards protection of the intimidated employees’ dignity. The communication approach of these leaders delivers a warning message to the potential bullies.
Conclusion
Despite rapid transformation in the healthcare industry, several problems continue to affect effective performance of employees. Bullying is a common occurrence that affects the organizational performance, as well as leads to psychological impacts among the victims. Although various measures such as training and managerial intervention have been employed in preventing this vice, bullying persists in healthcare institutions. The targets of bullying are new employees, as well as unskilled and inexperienced staffs. Furthermore, lack of proper guidance and preparedness leads to resignation, which is a trend that result in high employee turnover rate. This essay also establishes that prevalent cases of intimidation are the leading causes of post-traumatic stress disorders.
Although this essay comprehensively analyzes what constitutes to bullying, the victims in this case documented the serious elements of the occurrence. While they have a clear understanding of the emotional impacts of bullying, they also understand the accompanying risks of the act. Presented evidence shows that bullying affects the psychological wellness among the victims. As several victims explained in the stories, it is sensible to agree that control bullying in the healthcare environment depends on the top management intervention. Furthermore, this essay establishes that this intimidating behavior affects the patients’ outcome, service quality, and patient safety. Unless all the involved stakeholders are involved in prevention of the vice, the act will prevail in the healthcare sector. Top management should be involved through the provision of instructive guideline and prohibitive statements condemning bullying. The bullies participate by acquiring the appropriate training in order to differentiate between leading, supervising, and bullying. The victims should perfect their skills in order to avoid falling victims to experienced staffs that accuse them of incompetence and inexperience.
References
Demir, D. & Rodwell, J. (2012). Psychosocial Antecedents and Consequences of Workplace Aggression for Hospital Nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 44(4): 376-384.
Flateau-Lux, L. (2013). Put a stop to bullying new nurses. Nursing, 43(6): 24-28
King-Jones, M. (2011). Horizontal Violence and the Socialization of New Nurses. Creative Nursing, 17(2): 80-86.
Laschinger, H. (2010). New graduate nurses' experiences of bullying and burnout in hospital settings. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(12): 2732-2742.
Losa, I. (2012). Prevalence of bullying at work and its association with self-esteem scores in a Spanish nurse sample. Contemporary Nurse: A Journal for the Australian Nursing Profession, 42(1): 2-10.
Moore, L. (2013). Understanding Nurse-to-Nurse Relationships and Their Impact on Work Environments. MEDSURG Nursing, 22(3): 172-179.
Rocker, C. (2012). Responsibility of a Frontline Manager Regarding Staff Bullying. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 17(3): 1-2.
Rodwell, J. & Demir, D. (2012). Psychological consequences of bullying for hospital and aged care nurses. International Nursing Review, 59(4): 539-546.
Rodwell, J. (2013). Psychological and organizational impact of bullying over and above negative affectivity: A survey of two nursing contexts. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 19(3): 241-248.
Trépanier, S., Fernet, C. & Austin, S. (2013). Workplace bullying and psychological health at work: The mediating role of satisfaction of needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Work & Stress, 27(2): 123-140.
