Bullying by Professors in Nursing School

Published

Greetings! I am a 29 y/o 2nd degree nursing student. I am currently working on a paper for my Ethics class regarding Incivility and Bullying in the nursing environment. I have opted to focus this towards the nursing school environment. I have found one terrific article that deals with academic bullying by professors, but I am having a more difficult time finding one focused soley on the nursing school student. Does anyone have any ideas or links they can share? THe more I can't find articles the more I know I need to do this paper. I have peers in my school that have physical manifestations of stress related to going to clinical for fear of being yelled out, told to drop out, and that they will kill their patients. Students asking for help pronouncing a 27 letter long drug name are being told they are 'stupid' and patients won't want tobe cared for by them when they 'aren't smart enough to pronounce a word.' Instuctors telling students to 'be careful' regarding filing complaints because 'professors talk and complaining will only make you time left here harder than it needs to be.' The worst part of this situation is that the directors know but call the complaints hearsay. My Ethics professor is thrilled with the idea as she has been an advocate for students struggling with these 2 professors for over 3 yrs now. I am looking only for guidance here. I feel like I NEED to do this paper. If not for the exact change I am looking for, but to at least stir the pot and start a discussion.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.

I am doing a quick search of my library's data base. Here are a few sources that I found...maybe you can search for them at your library

A survey of students' perceptions of bullying behaviors in nursing education in Mississippi.

Cooper, JRM

University of Southern Mississippi, 2007; Ph.D. (154 p)

(doctoral dissertation - research)

Bullied nurses need legal aid... "Bullied during and after nursing school,"

Cristoff, P

Nursing Spectrum--Illinois & Indiana Edition (NURS SPECTRUM (CHICAGO ILLINOIS INDIANA)), 2007 Dec 17; 20(26): 4

Mobbing behaviors encountered by nurse teaching staff.

Yildirim, D; Yildirim, A; Timucin, A

Nursing Ethics (NURS ETHICS), 2007 Jul; 14(4): 447-63

**I attached the pdf I retrieved**

Bullied during and after nursing school.

Nursing Spectrum -- Illinois & Indiana Edition (NURS SPECTRUM (CHICAGO ILLINOIS INDIANA)), 2007 Nov 19; 20(24): 4

journal article - letter

I will continue looking and post more as I find them.

Good luck with everything!

mobbingbynursingteachingstaff.pdf

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.

Some more:

Exploring bullying: implications for nurse educators.

Edwards, SL; O'Connell, CF

Nurse Education in Practice (NURSE EDUC PRACT), 2007 Jan; 7(1): 26-35

**I attached the pdf**

Addressing nurse-to-nurse bullying to promote nurse retention

Rocker, CF

Nurse Education in Practice (NURSE EDUC PRACT), 2007 Jan; 7(1): 26-35

Bullying in the nursing profession.

Randel, J

Journal of Advanced Nursing (J ADV NURS), 2003 Aug; 43(4): 395-401

**pfd is attached**

exploringbullying.pdf

bullyinginnursingprofession.pdf

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thank you so much for your help! I can't wait to read through them all. :yeah:

Kim

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.

you are welcome! I am so bored right now (I have a week off before summer semester starts), so actually searching for these was fun!

let me know how the paper goes! I'd love to hear what you come up with!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

melmarie 23- my school only has the PA, NJ, NY, and FL online resources available for Nursing Spectrum. I can't access the article via the link you posted either. Is there anyway you would be able to email it to me? I can request it from my library but it will take any where from 5 days to 6 wks. I appreciate all the help you have already provided, and hope I am not putting you out. If you can please let me know and I will send you my email address.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.

yeah those links wont work. I still posted them because it had the journal, volume and issue...plus the author's names. For me, I would have to get the journal through interlibrary loan. Does your library have that?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.

I dont have access to them...the pdf's that I posted were the only ones that I was able to obtain directly.

There are many articles out there though, which is why I posted these sources. Maybe take them to your library and see if they can help obtain them for you?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Alrighty I will try that. Thanks again for your help! Enjoy your break!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

try nurse.com (nursingspectrum) and search "bullying".....not sure if you will find what you need, but there appeared to be many listings.....good luck......having been on the receiving end of this beharior, i say "you go, girl"!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Dear Meeks 08,

It is with personal interest that I respond to your request for information on nursing school professor bullying. You see, I am one of countless students who each year experience the type of abuse which you are trying to document.

Last semester was an eye opener for me, I was previously a straight A student with a 4.0 GPA. I had the misfortune to be accepted to an absolutely horrid nursing program at a small community college in Arizona. The director and some of her staff (not all) are extremely abusive and I question how they can even be in a healthcare profession. They leave more disease in their wake than Typhoid Mary...

You should know your quest for bullying documentation with instructors is only scratching the surface of what is already well known and documented to be a rampant problem within the nursing profession. Here is a link to a sentinel event alert from last year by The Joint Commission that you should read. http://www.jointcommission.org/SentinelEvents/SentinelEventAlert/sea_40.htm

I was flunked out of that substandard nursing program based on purely subjective evaluations in retaliation for not keeping my mouth shut in the face of absurd instruction and inconsistency among teaching staff who didn't even bother to read their own textbook. While most other students shared my opinion, they were all too scared to stand up to these thugs who don't even deserve to be called faculty. While my battle with these cretins is just beginning, chances are it will evolve into the subject of a book detailing the very topic you struggle to find documentation on.

Meanwhile, I wanted to share with you some related information I uncovered in a city not far from that miserable excuse for a nursing school I recently attended. This story comes to us from the nursing department on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/Southwest/10/28/university.shooting/

As you see, the topic is shooting... Please follow this next link to read 22 pages of the gunman's own words detailing just what drove him to such desperate acts of violence. You may be surprised to learn that Mr. Flores was already a respected nurse and a Gulf War veteran. I don't condone what Robert Flores did, but after my own experiences with the BS you are researching, I more than understand his frustration with a system that lacks accountability from those who wield it's authority.

http://www.azstarnet.com/specialreport/

Meeks08, there are no easy answers to complex problems such as those you are attempting to address. My first thought was the nursing shortage has enabled nursing profession washouts another opportunity to belittle and demoralize an even weaker variety of young nurse, the student. Yet this problem with nurses "Eating their young" has been ongoing and is nothing new. My second thought was that those who can will do, and those who cannot will teach. Obviously, not all nursing instructors are losers like the group I just experienced, but sadly this band of thugs is all I know of the healthcare profession's educational system.

Good Luck to you Meeks08!!!

Jakesdad

Up Vote Up Vote ×

This is a topic I would love to talk people more about. I began nursing school this past spring and had serious problem with my clinical instructor. I realized she was clearly going to flunk me regardless of what I did. Feeling that I was being treated unfairly I went to the director of nursing who suggested I either have some sort of negotiated intervention with the prof or retake the 8 hour fundamental course the following semester. Under the college's normal policies I would have to sit out a semester and reapply if I dropped but the director offered to put me on a special list which would allow me to retake in the fall. Given that my psyche had unraveled by this point and I had not faith in the negotiation would work out (clincial instructors have all the power), I decided to drop. I contacted the director a few weeks ago to confirm that day for registration to find out she had changed her mind. So now I'm out of the program figuring out my next move.

Do you have any ideas on how I might go about telling my story? Who can I complain to?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion