A silent epidemic, a great threat to patient safety, an ugly secret in the most caring
of professions,
1
these are just a few ways that incivility and bullying have been referred to in the
literature over the last 10 years. Incivility and bullying have long existed in society
and in health care, yet great strides have recently been made in moving the issue
from the background to the forefront for discussion, leading to the beginnings of
its prevention. It is known by many names—“eating our young,” “toughening up,” “getting
a thick skin”—but at their core, they are the destructive and harming behaviors of
disrespect and degradation. Edmonson and Allard
2
noted that some of the origins of bullying in nursing can be explained using oppression
theory. They observed that most incivility in nursing is nurse to nurse, horizontal
behaviors, a characteristic of an oppressed group. However, incivility and bullying
also occurs within and among professions. They represent a continuum of behaviors
that range from disrespect to workplace violence.
3
They can occur top down, bottom up, and horizontally within any team or organization.
A hierarchal relationship is not required. Worst of all, they may occur between the
health care provider and the patient and family. Bullying behaviors can be born out
of conflict for resources, authority gradients, gender struggles, generational differences,
value differences, power struggles, and learned patterns of behaviors. Health care
is a dynamic, complex, and often stressful environment and is primed for bullying
behaviors to occur.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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- Letter to the EditorNurse LeaderVol. 15Issue 3
- PreviewI read with great interest the article “A Moral Imperative for Nurse Leaders: Addressing Incivility and Bullying in Health Care”1 in volume 15, issue 1, of Nurse Leader and wish to applaud the authors and Nurse Leader for bringing bullying and incivility to the forefront. As a novice nurse aspiring towards an advanced degree, I find the subject of bullying and incivility a delicate issue that needs to be confronted and addressed. After reading the article, I recognized that there are many effective tools available to use in my career as a nurse leader to combat aggressive and disrespectful behavior.
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- Letter to the EditorNurse LeaderVol. 15Issue 3
- PreviewThank you for the excellent discussion that was presented in the article “A Moral Imperative for Nurse Leaders: Addressing Incivility and Bullying in Health Care.”1 In my role as the Director of Perioperative Services, empowering the health care team to address safety concerns is of upmost importance to a patient's safety in the surgical setting. The article presents the nursing aspect of incivility, but I was very disappointed that the disrespectful and demeaning behavior of physicians towards the health care team was not addressed.
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