Nurses being victims of workplace bullys.

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Why do Nurses let themselves be victims of bullys?

    • 7
      Because Nurses, in general, are co-dependent.
    • 11
      Nurses, in general, want to be liked by everyone.
    • 9
      Nurses are, in general, uncomfortable with conflict and anger
    • 10
      Because Nurses, in general, lack assertiveness skills.
    • 15
      Because Nurses, in general, don't want to "rock the boat."
    • 7
      Because Nurses, in general, still buy into the Florence Nightengale mentality.
    • 5
      Nurses, in general would rather deny problems, not confront them.
    • 15
      Because Nurses, in general, want everybody to "get along."
    • 3
      Because Nurses, in general, are women who let themselves be "door mats."
    • 4
      In general, Nurses have low self-esteem.

86 members have participated

I am increasingly amazed at how Nurses let themselves be victims of workplace bullys and let themselves be harassed and treated disrespectfully. I would like to find out the possible causes of this, so here is a poll...please participate. Ad other possible causes if you like. Please participate so we can begin to find sollutions to end this vicious cycle in our profession. Thanks.

Specializes in Utilization Management.
Angie...very interesting reply. I had never thought of that possibility. So, if our lack of autonomy plays part of the victim/bully behavior, are u saying that Nurses bully because they feel a sense of lack of power because of company practises and that nurses who are victims feel that way because of the same? So, do u think it just comes down to having power, wanting power and not having power??? If so, what can we do about it as Nurses.

__________________

The question was why do nurses let themselves be victims of bullys. The basis for my answer lies in the belief that at the root of nurse victimization is health care management paternalism.

We all have felt the fear of losing our jobs, being blackballed, or being labelled a troublemaker if we speak up. We all have felt the squeeze between being ethically honorable for our patients and being a "team player." These are techniques management uses to divide, coerce and manipulate us.

Nursing is no longer an autonomous practice because by definition, we work for someone. We have no realistic recourse to being employed by someone at some point in our career, whether it's to gain experience as a new grad or to learn a new area of nursing.

Therefore, when management does things that are counterproductive to the well-being of the patient or heaven forbid, the well-being of the nurse, we are afraid to speak up. We become victims. They become bullies. This causes our self-worth to erode and makes a wound bed for the opportunistic backbiting, nurse-eating, and bullying behaviors that many of us have learned to put up with.

I think it may be a combination of things - self esteem issues, respect issues, power trip/control issues...

I think that nurses get bullied by so many different departments and disciplines, that it turns them one of two ways - either their self esteem gets weakened or they, in turn, become bullies themselves.

I think it may be a combination of things - self esteem issues, respect issues, power trip/control issues...

I think that nurses get bullied by so many different departments and disciplines, that it turns them one of two ways - either their self esteem gets weakened or they, in turn, become bullies themselves.

Deb answered because you asked a question about why nurses let themselves be bullied and since there was no option on your poll to say that some of us don't think "nurses" as a whole get bullied more than any other group, she answered why by relating how she won't allow herself to get bullied.

I'm with Deb here. I don't allow myself to be bullied. And I don't see nurses as a group getting bullied. It is individual people who for whatever reason allow themselves to be bullied. Individual people in all kinds of jobs.

So your poll is skewed.

Why does anyone let themselves be bullied?

steph

Deb answered because you asked a question about why nurses let themselves be bullied and since there was no option on your poll to say that some of us don't think "nurses" as a whole get bullied more than any other group, she answered why by relating how she won't allow herself to get bullied.

I'm with Deb here. I don't allow myself to be bullied. And I don't see nurses as a group getting bullied. It is individual people who for whatever reason allow themselves to be bullied. Individual people in all kinds of jobs.

So your poll is skewed.

Why does anyone let themselves be bullied?

steph

Hi...very interesting. Angie, if what u say is true, ther are a lot of embittered nurses out there. In my experience with management, when bully/victim activity is going on the managers are not addressing the issue, nor are the bullys and victims. On the other hand, when I have worked with managers who do not allow victimization to go on, there has been none or if there is it is delt with immediately. Going further thinking about what u said, that would mean that managers and management who allow this kind of behavior would want it to continue to keep the "statis-quo" and their power trip going. Like goes to like, so then I guess that a person who is power hungry and a bully would only be comfortable working with like minded people. What do you think? And, what can we do about it?

Hi...very interesting. Angie, if what u say is true, ther are a lot of embittered nurses out there. In my experience with management, when bully/victim activity is going on the managers are not addressing the issue, nor are the bullys and victims. On the other hand, when I have worked with managers who do not allow victimization to go on, there has been none or if there is it is delt with immediately. Going further thinking about what u said, that would mean that managers and management who allow this kind of behavior would want it to continue to keep the "statis-quo" and their power trip going. Like goes to like, so then I guess that a person who is power hungry and a bully would only be comfortable working with like minded people. What do you think? And, what can we do about it?

Stevie; Research has shown that the Healthcare Industry is the #1 place where you find workplace bullys. Education is the second. Its interesting to me that in both these fields, people who get into them are people who have an interest in helping someone.

Stevie; Research has shown that the Healthcare Industry is the #1 place where you find workplace bullys. Education is the second. Its interesting to me that in both these fields, people who get into them are people who have an interest in helping someone.

Specializes in Utilization Management.
Hi...very interesting. Angie, if what u say is true, ther are a lot of embittered nurses out there. In my experience with management, when bully/victim activity is going on the managers are not addressing the issue, nor are the bullys and victims. On the other hand, when I have worked with managers who do not allow victimization to go on, there has been none or if there is it is delt with immediately. Going further thinking about what u said, that would mean that managers and management who allow this kind of behavior would want it to continue to keep the "statis-quo" and their power trip going. Like goes to like, so then I guess that a person who is power hungry and a bully would only be comfortable working with like minded people. What do you think? And, what can we do about it?

I think that a good manager simply won't allow bullying and those nurses will either get with the culture or they'll be reassigned. :)

The rest of us need to raise our awareness of what is perceived as bullying behaviors, and resist the temptation to bully others or to be bullied.

I've met some nurses who I feel are bullies, but who themselves genuinely feel their rude, aggressive, controlling behaviors over their "too-passive" coworkers (this is their opinion, not mine) are what make them "good" nurses.

With experience, we learn to define our boundaries about what is and is not acceptable. Just like in other areas of our lives, we see others engage in successful behaviors and emulate them. As we teach ourselves to prevent treatment that demeans or denigrates us, we teach others to promote their own dignity and self-worth.

Where the media has failed us, the Internet has been a great boon in sharing ideas and raising awareness about many nursing issues. I believe that as Internet access becomes more common, there will be more changes coming for nurses everywhere.

Specializes in Utilization Management.
Hi...very interesting. Angie, if what u say is true, ther are a lot of embittered nurses out there. In my experience with management, when bully/victim activity is going on the managers are not addressing the issue, nor are the bullys and victims. On the other hand, when I have worked with managers who do not allow victimization to go on, there has been none or if there is it is delt with immediately. Going further thinking about what u said, that would mean that managers and management who allow this kind of behavior would want it to continue to keep the "statis-quo" and their power trip going. Like goes to like, so then I guess that a person who is power hungry and a bully would only be comfortable working with like minded people. What do you think? And, what can we do about it?

I think that a good manager simply won't allow bullying and those nurses will either get with the culture or they'll be reassigned. :)

The rest of us need to raise our awareness of what is perceived as bullying behaviors, and resist the temptation to bully others or to be bullied.

I've met some nurses who I feel are bullies, but who themselves genuinely feel their rude, aggressive, controlling behaviors over their "too-passive" coworkers (this is their opinion, not mine) are what make them "good" nurses.

With experience, we learn to define our boundaries about what is and is not acceptable. Just like in other areas of our lives, we see others engage in successful behaviors and emulate them. As we teach ourselves to prevent treatment that demeans or denigrates us, we teach others to promote their own dignity and self-worth.

Where the media has failed us, the Internet has been a great boon in sharing ideas and raising awareness about many nursing issues. I believe that as Internet access becomes more common, there will be more changes coming for nurses everywhere.

I don't know if this really belongs in this thread or not.

The "bullying" situation got so bad here recently, that two RN's in one of the ICU's actually got into a physical fight. One RN pressed charges against the other, and now she's going to lose her license. Where was the Manager? She apparently chose to ignore the situation. This situation had been building up for EIGHT years. Were they ever scheduled opposite of each other? No. Did the manager ever speak to either of them? No. In short, absolutely nothing was done to prevent this all from happening, no one intervened.

I think it's quite pathetic, really.

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