i have had a very interesting experience with the aacn's "healthy work environments" initiative. it really does seem that one just had to "name it to claim it!"
i have posted an excerpt from the aacn's on-line and journal article on lateral violence - has anyone had any experience with these behaviors (below)?
how much of your practice is impacted by issues such as these!?
i know that, in retrospect, i have had a role or two that i am not proud of! however, i resolved that i would be a part of the solution - not a part of any problem. so, what do you recognize?
have you been a victim or a villain?
how do we stop this now?
please share your feeling, comments, observations or experiences.
thanks!!!
and
practice safe!
from the june 2007 edition of : critical care nurse
manifestations of lateral hostility
lateral hostility, bullying, horizontal violence, and the like may be conveyed in a nearly endless variety of forms that denigrate a nurse's professional dignity. some of those expressions identified in the literature include the following3,14,17:
* backstabbing, gossiping
* belittling gestures (deliberate rolling of eyes, folding arms, staring straight ahead or "through" when communication is attempted)
* constant criticism, scapegoating, fault-finding
* elitist attitudes regarding work area, education, experience
I was bullied as a kid and learned, really quick, it will continue only if you let it.
If you hold your ground, the bully will back off. It throws the bully off. They are looking for a push over to feed off of. When they find they can't feed off of you, they are powerless. They derive their power from your fear.
I learned this when I was in high school. I leaving class and another girl, of a different ethnicity, stalked up to me and declared "they" were going to kick my "lilly white ***" after school. Well, I never met this girl before and was incensed that, not only was I being unfairly targeted, but that she couldn't do it alone... she was going to involve her friends. Whoa! Hold on!
I called her bluff, threw down my books, stared her in the face, stood tall (or as tall as this shorty could!) and said cooly, "Ok! Let's go... now! Just the two of us!" I was prepared for the first blow (and scared s***less inside... I can't fight for anything!!!!).
That girl got a wild eyed look like, "oh crap!" and threw her hands up in the air and said, "You are a CRAZY white girl!!!" and spun around and ran off! Seriously!
She couldn't feed off me!
And while I would NEVER resort to violence or threats in the workplace, I learned that by staying calm and standing one's ground, the bully backs off.
When I was a new CNA, there were older aides with "high school" mentality who tried to feed off me. I always stayed cool, never let them see me sweat and carried on like I could care less.
That put an end to it.
I was not "fun" to pick on.
Nor was I any fun when I had straw wrappers blown at me as I walked down the hall by the aides in a nursing facility! How juvenile! These were aides around thirty years old! I was 18. They even tried to see if I was stupid enough to eat chocolate cake they had, no doubt, "prepared" in the soiled utility! No fooling! Even the nurse on duty stood and watched, thinking it was funny!
It was pathetic!
Proved neither age nor education was a guarantor of class... sheesh!
I did not swear nor threaten back... nor did I run off and cry. I just had dignity. Blew it off and carried on. Not a response they expected nor were used to. No fun!!!
I did quit that particular job. They treated everyone like crap, including the patients. I wanted no part of it.
Stand your ground with dignity.
It is not always that easy to get a bully to back off at work, especially if the bully is your manager. The work place is a little different from high school or middle school. As they say the bully grows up, puts on a suit and goes to work. They usually have a well established network.
Specializes in trauma, ortho, burns, plastic surgery.
They are couple of easy rules for this type of environment: one contact your supervisor, manager, two go out from there ASAP. You need to fallow the rules because is not any other way to deal with. You will see life is not finish and not start there, good luck.
Specializes in Med Surg, ER, ICU, LTC, DRUG & ETOH.
How did that work out for you?
Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I quit that job and when I gave notice, her mother had the nerve to ask what was wrong and suggest I hang in there. I walked out, moved on and love where I'm at now but still occasionally think about the uselessness of what they did and what a loss it was to them lol.
I have read numerous posts on this thread. I have not experienced bullying in my own estimation when I think back on my career.
I experienced the first year in my current position an entire year of being pulled into the supervisors office for what I thought of as nitpicking things.
While it was occurring of course I would go home and think about it. Be upset, either to the point of wanting to cry or yell. Yet in hind site. This same supervisor was invaluable to me. She helped me to transition during my first year. She was the type who rather than let something slide, would speak to her staff as things came up. I suppose some would have considered this bullying. However ,what she had to say was behind closed doors. She would point out how I had handled something.While I might have thought them nitpicking. She saw them as important.
Her job was to develop me into the type of nurse she wanted on her unit. One who saw all details as important. Now I never was a careless nurse. She was doing her job which was to develop the best staff that she could.
I learned to love this woman and her honesty, her professionalism. Her desire to teach her staff. Her broad shoulders so to speak. So do I think I was bullied? I might have felt I was. after all I had already been a nurse for 20 years,but in fact that would have only been my perception .
The truth and the facts would have shown if I could have seen the whole picture at the time, she was teaching, she was mentoring in the truest sense.
How do we learn new ways of doing, thinking without someone pointing the way.
Hi, I need advice. I began in the OR about 3 months ago after being on med/surg. People told me they eat their young here, but I disregarded this because I'd never had any trouble before. I enjoy the surgical aspect of the job. Should I continue until I'm fully trained and on my own or bail?
I must say, That I do not recognize, do not support, nor do I believe in lateral violence at work. Treat your co workers politely, respectfully, nicely. You in turn will be treated the same way. Very simple actually.
Once again, your definition of 'violence' is ridiculously broad. Also, students who think the world revolves around them ARE annoying. Students should be deferential to the nurses on shift, and not so thin skinned as to be totally exaggerating like you are. You have a lot to learn yet about nursing. Not everyone enjoys mentoring students, and the nurse in question was probably not well pleased that she was being forced to do so.
So what if she isn't happy about it? Maybe she should ask her manager to not give her any students instead of mistreating her student. If the manager says she has to have one, then she sure shouldn't take it out on the student. I have not been long out of the role of student and I have had a total of 4 students in recent weeks. I find that they can be great help. One was less confident than others and she basically followed me and I attempted to explain to her what I was doing. I had another one who was more confident and I monitored her assessment and med administration. She was a joy and did all the blood sugars and assisted with my patients other than the one she was assigned. Another night I had two students and their clinical instructor was with them and I was having a horrible night. I got two new patients at shift change and one was dying, the other was on a heparin drip. The one stable patient had a trach, Bi-Pap, feeding tube and about 10 meds. The instructor supervised their med administration and I just went back and reviewed. They left at 11 pm, but that gave me a chance to get my difficult patients squared away. If their instructor had not been available, they may have just had to followed me because it was so hectic and busy that I would not have had time to walk them through med administration. But I would never have been mean to them and I would have explained why I wasn't walking them through and doing it myself instead.
I have read numerous posts on this thread. I have not experienced bullying in my own estimation when I think back on my career.
I experienced the first year in my current position an entire year of being pulled into the supervisors office for what I thought of as nitpicking things.
While it was occurring of course I would go home and think about it. Be upset, either to the point of wanting to cry or yell. Yet in hind site. This same supervisor was invaluable to me. She helped me to transition during my first year. She was the type who rather than let something slide, would speak to her staff as things came up. I suppose some would have considered this bullying. However ,what she had to say was behind closed doors. She would point out how I had handled something.While I might have thought them nitpicking. She saw them as important. "
That isn't what I am talking about when I talk about bullying or the other dreaded phrase. That is teaching. No problem, I appreciate constructive criticism when it is presented in an upfront, respectful or matter of fact manner. Nastiness and lecturing, eye rolling, deep breathing, avoiding answering the question but lecturing on "what I should have done." Example: 2 or 3 weeks off orientation I was assigned a closed head injury patient who was very agitated, on a vent, 4 point restraints, physically strong young man who was not aware of his actions. He was scheduled a load of meds that would have kept most people sleeping. However he was able to pull his restraints loose enough to get at his catheter, trach tube, peg tube, c-collar, whatever. He was getting more and more restless and he had an order for prn IV Valium. I knew that I could not mix the valium with saline, but I thought okay I will mix it with bacteriostatic H20. Well of course it crystalized. I definately did not give it to him, my charge nurse was sitting at the desk and I only wanted to make sure that I could give it to him straight in the iv, because I feared it would crystalize. After taking an audible breath, she loudly told me that I should never give valium mixed with anything and not to give that because it had crystalized. She went on to tell me that I should always look my medicines up. Now I knew what valium was, I knew there were cautions about mixing it, I certainly knew not to give a med that had crystalized. I just didn't know if I could give it straight in the iv line and I didn't know if I could just go and get more out of the pyxis or the proceedure for wasting it. She was sitting outside the patients room, my patient was highly agitated and I needed to do something quick. I didn't need a lecture. She obviously did this to make me look bad, and herself look like ???? well I don't know what she wanted to look like, superior I guess. My question went unanswered. I then repeated my question, "Is it okay to give it unmixed in the IV or will it crystalize?" She then told me yes, you can give it in the iv unmixed and flush with saline. I gave the med, it worked. Why did I have to go through that embarassement? No reason at all. That was bullying or the gastronomic delight of this charge nurse. It was an emergent situation and I needed simple answers. This same nurse did a lot of crappy things to me when she was charge and when she was not. It is funny after I started getting sarcastic with her she has totally changed the way she treats me. She treats me quiet well now, but I don't generally go to her with questions either. I have no trust for her and have learned there are other people I can ask, even if she is charge.
Mahage, thank you for such clear examples of what is nurse to nurse hostility. It is never necessary or appropriate to demean another, listening is important so that the real question is answered quickly and appropriately. There is never a resaon for a nurse to cease to be an advocate or educator, whether it is for the patient (the end result is always about the patient) or those who have less experience or training as in the case of new nurses and students. If you are not willing to be an educator leave nursing become a truck driver or something else but don't stay in nursing and destroy the concept that we are care givers. New nurses are recipients of care. nanacarol
I was thinking the same thing, but decided to bite my tongue until now.
Members such as Tom and Tweety state that they are never victimized; however, both of the aforesaid nurses are males. I might be wrong, but I think that people in general are less likely to engage in bullying behavior toward males. For example, some male docs are notorious for screaming at female nurses, but they will turn around and behave in an even-tempered manner toward the male nurse. Being male has some societal privileges, whether anyone wants to believe it or not.
This is true. But also, I read the threads here and people venting about situations and things said to them where nurses have said they came home and cried, cried in the bathroom, etc etc. Honestly, I have been in a lot of the same situations and the same things don't bother me. I've talked over these things with some of the other male nurses I work with and it seems like we just don't let stuff get to us like it does some of the female nurses. I'm not saying all female nurses are like this as a rule, but I think male nurses are more willing to let things roll off their back. Does that make sense?
I'll use an anecdotal example: When I was very first put in the charge position I kept forgetting to tell people that they were getting admits, I kept forgetting to check the refrigerator temps, I kept forgetting to assign an aide to relieve a sitter. Blablabla. I got thrown into it and dealt with it. A lot of coworkers groaned and moaned about that kind of stuff to our manager. My manager would bring up my mistakes that my coworkers complained about. I learned from it. I moved on. I tried not to make the same mistake twice.
There was another RN that got put in the same position I did, and was making the same mistakes. One evening, she ended up in the manager's office asking to not be charge anymore. She was garnering some coworker complaints too. The complaints stressed her to no end, since she felt like she was underperforming (low self esteem? I dunno). But she let the hens peck her to death.
Again, an anecdotal example, but I think that in general women take criticism more harshly. So yes, it is possible that men are being bullied, but we're just more oblivious to it, so maybe that does mean that we're less bullied than women? Dunno...But believe me, female nurses tend to be far more judgemental towards male nurses than other female nurses.
In my experience as nursing student I encountered more nasty nurses than nice ones.I learned one thing dont make friends at work and dont ask too many questions,just go about your bussiness,you are not there to make friends.
sayitgirl
210 Posts
It is not always that easy to get a bully to back off at work, especially if the bully is your manager. The work place is a little different from high school or middle school. As they say the bully grows up, puts on a suit and goes to work. They usually have a well established network.