Nurse Bullying and Intent to Leave

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Executive Summary

Nurse bullying is a persistent problem within nursing and has many negative effects on the workplace environment.

In this sample of nurses, 40% reported they were bullied in the past 6 months.

Nurses want to be empowered to make changes to optimize care and obtain the best outcomes for their patients. However, in many workplace cultures this doesn't happen.

Administrators need to understand how their workplace culture impacts nursing care and retention.

Investments should be made to improve the work culture and train staff on proper communication with role play opportunities to learn how to handle disruptive communication.

WORKPLACE BULLYING IS common in the nursing profession. The obvious impact of bullying is to the victim who may experience mental or psychological distress and increased levels of stress (Einarsen & Nielsen, 2015; Giorgi et al., 2016; Sauer & McCoy, 2016). Victims of bullying experience high stress levels, burnout, and consequently lose loyalty and a sense of commitment to the employer (Giorgi et al., 2016). Bullying does not just impact the victim, the bullying activity taints the workplace culture, impairing communication between members of the healthcare team, which can jeopardize patient safety (The Joint Commission, 2015). Bullying impacts the economic health of the organization through nurse absenteeism and increased turnover (Wilson, Diedrich, Phelps, & Choi, 2011).

Research about nurse bullying frequently focuses on the impact to the victim. The purpose of this article is to report the findings from a study that examined bullying among nurses and the impact bullying had on the nurses' intent to leave their unit or employer.

Literature Review

Bullying. Workplace bullying occurs when an employee displays negative behaviors toward another employee. This negative behavior can include nonverbal actions such as eye rolling, ignoring, and walking away when approached (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2015). Verbal manifestations include snide or derogatory comments, yelling, or teasing a co-worker. Researchers have used different definitions of bullying; most describe the same behaviors but vary in the severity and frequency with which the victim experiences the negative behaviors (ANA, 2015). Einarsen, Hoel, and Notelaers (2009) define bullying as a situation in which individuals perceive they are exposed to disruptive behaviors for more than 6 months and from one or more persons in the workplace and...