Bullying in the workplace

Nurses Relations

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Hi :) I was wondering how bad the bullying is in the nursing field? I have been hearing a lot of nurses talking about how awful it is to work with other nurses.

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Staff note - many posts which were off-topic were deleted....

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In my nearly 37 years of nursing I have only worked in two hospitals, and really have not seen bullying or this thing called lateral violence, or any violence at all for that matter. I've worked in a Catholic hospital for the last 26 years, and issues between employees get dealt with before they get out of hand. There may at times be disputes amongst employees, and not all of us like each other, but there doesn't seem to be bullying.

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Specializes in Ortho, CMSRN.

I have not experienced very much bullying at all, and honestly... I can only think of one person. When I was brand new, there was a charge nurse that had little patience with me and all of my newb questions. I caught her rolling her eyes when I came up to the desk once. That made me sad. Then-me probably would have annoyed now-me though, to be fair. She never did anything outright ugly or mean though to me. Once, I did hear her talking about another nurse and how bad she smells. I didn't think too highly of the other 2 nurses participating in the conversation either after that. And no... My sniffer is pretty good, but I never noticed said nurse smelling poorly. Kind of ugly behavior. That nurse left our unit. It's a shame, because other than the lack of patience and occasional snide remarks about others, she was a damn good nurse. Probably helped morale though.

That being said, I remember when my mother was a new nurse, she would come home in tears because of a bully. This lady would brag about how many other new nurses that she got fired. Very cliquish and would actively look for mistakes to report in people that she did not like. My mom eventually got fired because of this ladies shenaniganry. She was much happier after finding a new job anyways. That lady made her life miserable :(

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

In my personal experience, true bullies are not all that common in nursing. I've encountered a couple of them. However, two bullies is a very small sample size out of the countless nurses I've met during my career.

On the other hand, malicious gossip seems to be more common than real bullying.

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You know what we need in nursing? More men. I mean, us women can't get through a shift without battling it out over tampons.

If we're going to play the ***** card, you also have to recognize men are less empathetic and less verbal. See, you can't indulge one gender stereotype and just close an eye to the one you don't like.

Men can be bullies. Don't kid yourself, honey.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
You know what we need in nursing? More men. I mean, us women can't get through a shift without battling it out over tampons.

If we're going to play the b-tch card, you also have to recognize men are less empathetic and less verbal. See, you can't indulge one gender stereotype and just close an eye to the one you don't like.

Men can be bullies. Don't kid yourself, honey.

Such misogyny. I hate when people blame the female-dominated nature of nursing for all its problems and failings.

I was in the military, in a male-dominated field for years. The bytching, whining, moaning and backstabbing existed plenty there. It's not all on us women.

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Specializes in Public Health, TB.

In my experience, non-nurses have been the bullies: doctors, midlevels, unit clerks, and occasionally RT. I have been sworn at, threatened, seen charts and instruments thrown, but never by a nurse. Many a time some lazy a** POS demanded that I do I their work because "that's the nurses' job". Uh, no, its not, and you can get your own freakin' orders, consult, or call maintenance about the thermostat or plumbing, or broken chair.

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Specializes in Documentation, Medication Administration.

Most of the nurses in my workplace are usually pleasant but there are about three nurses who are disgruntled and grouchy. They've been working at the LTC for a long time and they're usually older. Don't have anything against older nurses. In fact, there's one nurse in her mid-sixties and I get along well with her because she's a kindhearted lady who doesn't eat her young.

Anyway, one nurse (I'll call her AA) is a mean-spirited nurse. According to my co-workers, she used to be a lot worse than she is now but nonetheless, she's always frowning and annoyed by everyone around her. She works AM and always dumps everything on the PM nurse which sucks because then I (or anyone who works PM in that particular station) have to follow up lab works and ****.

Another nurse I'll call MM is the type of nurse who eats her young. When I was working 3-4 months at the time, I stayed overtime and that infuriated MM because when she does overtime, the higher ups question her.

The third nurse FC is just... unfriendly and unapproachable. While I was looking for some forms, I walked to her station and she was sitting down charting. She didn't even say hello and just ignored my presence. I didn't make any small talk with her at all. When I first started working with her, I felt intimidated by her. I was thinking to myself, "I'm not gonna bother her. It's best to leave her alone."

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

Sigh, another trollbait article maybe? Just in case you are serious, I will attempt to answer seriously. Of course bullying exists in nursing. It exists in humanity so in any career you might encounter a small number of bullies. I don't believe you will find more bully nurses than bully lawyers or bully anything else.

I have never seen a true bully in all the years I've been nursing, and with turnover being such an issue I've worked with a LOT of nurses. That doesn't mean they don't exist, but they certainly don't come in into nursing in such huge numbers that you have to be so worried about it.

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The third nurse FC is just... unfriendly and unapproachable. While I was looking for some forms, I walked to her station and she was sitting down charting. She didn't even say hello and just ignored my presence. I didn't make any small talk with her at all. When I first started working with her, I felt intimidated by her. I was thinking to myself, "I'm not gonna bother her. It's best to leave her alone."

As someone who could have been that third nurse, please don't take it personally. She may even like you, and likely appreciated the silence. I'm the kind of person who goes weeks without talking to my best friend.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Most of the nurses in my workplace are usually pleasant but there are about three nurses who are disgruntled and grouchy. They've been working at the LTC for a long time and they're usually older. Don't have anything against older nurses. In fact, there's one nurse in her mid-sixties and I get along well with her because she's a kindhearted lady who doesn't eat her young.

Anyway, one nurse (I'll call her AA) is a mean-spirited nurse. According to my co-workers, she used to be a lot worse than she is now but nonetheless, she's always frowning and annoyed by everyone around her. She works AM and always dumps everything on the PM nurse which sucks because then I (or anyone who works PM in that particular station) have to follow up lab works and ****.

Another nurse I'll call MM is the type of nurse who eats her young. When I was working 3-4 months at the time, I stayed overtime and that infuriated MM because when she does overtime, the higher ups question her.

The third nurse FC is just... unfriendly and unapproachable. While I was looking for some forms, I walked to her station and she was sitting down charting. She didn't even say hello and just ignored my presence. I didn't make any small talk with her at all. When I first started working with her, I felt intimidated by her. I was thinking to myself, "I'm not gonna bother her. It's best to leave her alone."

Uh huh. The fact that you've encountered three nurses that you don't like (or who don't like YOU) does not mean that you've encountered bullies. Unfriendly and unapproachable does not constitute a bully. Nor does frowning and annoyed . . . Or even, and this may surprise you, dumping on the pM nurse. And as for the nurse who eats her young -- being "infuriated" -- if she actually WAS infuriated and not just annoyed at your slowness -- that doesn't constitute eating her young or being a bully. So what you've managed to do is produce anecdotes about three nurses you don't get along with who are all older than you. Perhaps it's not bullying on their part (because you've shown us no evidence of bullying) but ageism on your part. (Except there's one older nurse that you DO like . . . It's like saying "I'm not a racist. I have a black friend."

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Yes, I think it's time for a serious reexamination of what the word "bully" actually means.

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