Nurse bullying

Nurses Relations

Published

I live in the Delaware Valley (PA, NJ, Delaware).

Has anyone in this area ever been a target of this behaviour? I think a nurse bully picks on a competant nurse because the bully is intimidated by the resilience of the nurse she/he may be picking on.

This bullying can go on for months even years from the same bully toward the same target. We aren't victims since we rise up professionally from the perpetrator bully nurse; I may be a target but I am not a victim.

Anyone else ever feel this way from the target nurse perspective?

If nurses are bullying or attempting to bully other nurses you can bet a dollar to a donut these same nurses are bullying patients. Bullies look for weakest and try to take them out. Patients are the perfect victims, for the most part they are weak and vulnerable. Bullies will not limit the number of victims they bully at any given time. If they see 10 ripe targets they will attempt to bully all 10 in a given day. May not be the same place, could be someone at work, a patient or two, someone at the grocery story, someone at the mall, in the parking lot. Bullies are like drug addicts or alcoholics, they take what they can find anywhere they can get it. God help the patients of these nurses that bully, especially the elderly and those not able to defend themselves.

So how can we deflect them with humour? Send along ideas.

I applause you for this! I wish I read this article sooner before I left my job.

In my first experience I have confronted and took a nurse aside for calling me a degrading name. Since then we get along.

The second incident was a nurse who bullied me continuously that even the EKG technician noticed that she picked on me. I was going through a lot of stress emotionally and physically. Finally spoke to my supervisor and she addressed the issue. I feel I am a softy because I value kindness and compassion and exert this positive attitude to my patients. Unfortunately she finds this a weakness. Little did she know that I was so close in writing her up, but she was soo lucky I didn't. Never again do I want to quit my job because of a bully. She was not worth my 4 years of hard work in Nursing education. I learned through this ordeal and I thank you for your response and courage.

It seems like the bullies are the ones that stay (after running others off) and retire after 30 or 40 years.

They don't care, they get their paycheck every two weeks.

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