As A Nurse Leader, How Do You Stop Bullying In The Healthcare Setting / Environment?

Bullying in the Healthcare Setting
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Bullying is a common problem at the workplace of most professions. However, it is sad to note that nursing in particular, a profession that is built on the foundations of compassion and gentleness, also bears the brunt of workplace bullying. Bullying of nurses in the healthcare sector is a worldwide phenomenon. Nurses are not only bullied by their seniors but with other nurses as well. A nurse who is bullied may feel intimidated costing their morale to provide quality care. The impacts can even lead to the nurse resigning. There are some cases where managers have indulged in the bullying themselves. In some other cases, other nurses have bullied others, but managers have failed to provide the necessary support required to the victims. The victims in most cases are from the oppressed group. The impact of workplace bullying in nursing usually has numerous impacts not only on the individual victims, but also on the entire fabric of the profession as well as the organization. It might result in low motivation levels which, on serious occasions, might bring about high turnover rates.
Bullying in the workplaces is caused by the organizational conditions and leadership styles that have got no sympathy. The two conditions cause the people in the organization to struggle for power which rises from values' conflict. Racism is a worldwide problem. If it becomes entranced in the nursing environment, it becomes a great deal resulting to bullying. The most common form of workplace bullying in the nursing setup is a combination of verbal and physical abuse from the patients and their relatives (Koh, 2016). The trained overseas nurses working in the west have been discriminated by the westerners. Studies show that non-western immigrants are vulnerable to being bullied during their trainee period and their first years of employment (Ludwig, 2013). Bullying can also be caused by political reasons. In this case, bullying serves to fulfill the perpetrator's self-interest. In most cases, what they look for is power or promotion. Due to this reason, older nurses bully the new graduate ones.
The impact bullying has on not only nurses but also patients is significant. It affects both psychological and physiological well-being of the nurses. Nurses who work in such an environment have great job dissatisfaction. They often spend more time on leave. The consequent outcome is decreased productivity due to low morale (Terri, 2012). This impacts the healthcare sector negatively. It is, therefore, a necessary that bullying at workplaces be combated with an immediate effect.
Combating bullying in the nursing environment starts with the leadership. In most cases, it may not be easy to identify bullying since it is in the organization as a whole. The culture and characteristics of the organization affect the likelihood of bullying to occur or challenging it. Some organization conditions cultivate bullying practices. This is especially if it runs from the leaders to the grass root level. The organizational culture plays a bigger role in either cultivating or combating bullying. As a nurse leader, the first thing to do after smelling signs of bullying in the organization is to revi...