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Bullying and horizontal violence takes its toll
The familiar expressions nurses eat their own' or their young' spark a range of reactions among those in the profession: from sadness and anger to acknowledgement, rolled eyes or a snort of laughter - but never denial.
Kara Douglas investigates the culture of bullying within the professions and the devastating toll it takes.
Elizabeth's voice cracks as she fights to hold back tears. It has been two years since she was forced to leave her job as a nurse manager because of workplace bullying but the pain is still raw. "You feel like it's your own fault, that it's a direct reflection of your own inadequacy," she says. "It's taken a long time for me to be prepared to say that this is what happened to me."
What happened was persistent bullying by two senior colleagues that pushed Elizabeth* to breaking point, threatening her career, her health and her marriage. "I literally just couldn't continue. I just couldn't stop crying at work, I went home and my medico started me on anti-depressants and I went off to counselling."
Elizabeth's ordeal started during a restructure at her work in 2011. Despite having years of experience at a very senior level, Elizabeth says the restructuring of roles led her to being consistently bullied by the DoN and another newly-appointed director for about two years. "It wasn't direct, aggressive stuff. It was more around withholding knowledge, giving of silly assignments, being excluded and not informed of what was required in my work - those sorts of things. "
Elizabeth says this covert bullying destroyed her confidence and ability to function at work. "It was subtle and it was difficult to pinpoint that it was going on, so it took some time to realise that you were being frozen out of information or selectively given information."
After breaking down and seeking help, Elizabeth tried to return to work under the condition that she would not have to interact with the two people she had been bullied by. Another DoN offered to act as an intermediary with the pair on Elizabeth's behalf, but was refused. "So I was just at home using up all of my leave provision," Elizabeth says.
"Then they...