Sixty percent of new nurses quit their first job within the first six months due to the behavior of their co-workers, and nearly 50 percent of nurses believe that they will experience bullying at some time in their careers, according to research presented in a new e-book from Aurora, Colo.-based American Sentinel University.
The new e-book, "Dr. Renee Thompson's Series on Nurse Bullying," examines the roots of bullying and conflict resolution as Renee Thompson, DNP, RN, a nursing professional development/anti-bullying thought leader, shares her professional insight on how to best address and eliminate workplace bullying.
Here are five other thoughts and statistics from the e-book.
1. Nearly half — 48 percent — of new graduating nurses are afraid of becoming the target of workplace bullying.
2. In Dr. Thompson's research and observations, she identified two primary reasons why bullying is prevalent in nursing:
Nursing is a female dominated profession. "Theories suggest that age-old female 'competition' has shifted from competing over a man to competing over status, respect and position in the nursing environment. The same behaviors once witnessed between two women fighting over a man are the ones witnessed today in the behavior of bullies," Dr. Thompson wrote.
Nurses are an oppressed profession. Dr. Thompson noted that nurses are seen as a silent majority, which can bring about frustration. "Feelings of frustration, coupled with an increasingly complex and stressful job, can create environments where nurses 'take it out' on each other. Since nurses can't 'take it out' on administrators or physicians, the theory is that they take it out on the already oppressed, subservient group," she wrote.
3. Dr. Thompson identified the following as common overt bullying weapons:
Verbal criticism or name-calling
Intimidation
Blaming
Ethnic jokes or slurs
Finding fault
Threatening
Physical violence
4. Dr. Thompson identified the following as common covert bullying weapons:
Sabotage
Withholding information
Excluding others
Unfair assignments
Undermining
Downplaying accomplishments
5. Dr. Thompson's recommended action steps to address bullying are:
Name the behavior. "Bullies who feel a sense of power during their tirades gain momentum as they scream, yell or spread rumors and sabotage their co-workers. Naming the behavior as it occurs can stop things immediately and prevent an escalation of that behavior," Dr. Thompson wrote.
Document, document and document. "If you are being bullied, start a documentation trail. Keep a small notebook with you and write down dates, times, witnesses, verbatim comments, and any behaviors you believe undermine a culture of safety and a professional work environment," Dr. Thompson wrote. "Keep growing this documentation trail until you are at the point where you can file a formal complaint."
[quote name=WE are the bullies for trying (nicely) to set her straight.....oh well.....
[/quote]
Oh my. Once again, never said you all are the bullies. Since I never personally seen you attack another person in the workplace (and the fact that I don't even know YOU), it's kind of hard to judge you for that !
And secondly, my first comments on this post were about my own personal experiences with bullying that included nurses eating their young, and mentioned how jealously can play a factor in bullying. Jealously along with power and control, any many other things.
Nurses eating their young, backstabbing, humiliation, ignoring, gossip, purposely setting others up for failure, are just a few examples of BULLYING = which you don't get.
Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
Well, write what you want, but bullying can happen because of jealously for whatever reason and most times it is. Why else would people bully one another???....
Because they can?
Because they are threatened by another person. Never understood this one because I couldnt stand doing my vengeful harpy bosses job
Because they are just down right vengeful @#$%^@# who instead of looking at their own weaknesses and short comings and seeing how they could improve on them and grown as people would rather blame others and make it other peoples fault. For example, a friend of mine who worked as a cook in the facility kept getting blamed by the vengeful harpy for the fact that the executive chefs kept quitting. My friend quit when her mum died which was about 3 months ago. We've been through about 8 chefs since then who all say the main reason why they are quitting is the vengeful harpy boss
People are precious and expect everyone else to be so accommodating of often things that are just stupid. We had some students recently who we had issues with. A couple who were smokers would duck out for a cigarette break and came back stinking of smoke. They honestly couldnt understand why this could be problematic among elderly who have compromised health conditions.
Far, you liked this!?? Or were you liking the inevitable calling out on compassion?
No. Crap. I meant to quote it. Then I got distracted by Final Jeopardy.
(Don't bully me, Ruby Vee. )
UNLIKED
I was worried too Far.
Nurses eating their young, backstabbing, humiliation, ignoring, gossip, purposely setting others up for failure, are just a few examples of BULLYING = which you don't get.
As a millennial in my 30s, it has NOTHING to do with the generation, rather, how sheltered or even inexperienced one can be with dealing with challenging personalities.
As someone who has been bullied-made fun of, gotten into fights, etc, etc-as a child, it seems as though when someone is expecting one to challenged themselves out of their comfort zone, the challenged party will derive feelings of being uncomfortable, and if the person is direct, then they are "mean" or "bullies"; I have seen allegedly "grown folks" play the same games, even though we are WELL past middle school; some in positions of leadership.
With the utmost respect, LadyFree, and you know that to be true, I think you are the exception rahter than the rule. The 30s and late 20s seem to be more worldly, but the younger millennials, as a GROUP, seem to have that "IT'S NOT FAIR" 'tude. There are many exceptions to that rule, in life, and here. Younger peeps here that walk the walk? Purple roses, crackle, ICUMan, CardiacDork and a few others come to mind...but there are many more, right here. That gives me HOPE.
But there is a sense of entitlement, evident in OP's post, that all the older nurses should retire and make room.
Get a grip, kids.
I looked at (and still look at) the COBs as treasure chests of wisdom.
It's your demonstrated propensity to presume that "years-in-grade" equates to stationary flow of thinking in the nurses to whom you have referred to as "old".
There are Soooooo many nurses on here who have graduated from nursing school, worked, went back to school again while working, and then went back to school again for higher degrees. They are being summarily dismissed as not having any validity to educate you on your interpretation of someone else's research.
Just to make it clear, NETY has been around for years.
.
Of course the term NETY has been around for years. Doesn't mean "Nurses Eat Their Young" is NOT a generalization.
It is a generalization. Nurses are not monoliths. We are not "Stepford Nurses".
Bad behavior is not strictly a "nurse" behavior.
My daughter is training to be a chef - she has co-workers who throw temper tantrums. My daughter-in-law is a hairdresser and she has some co-workers who love to gossip. (The majority of people who train to be chefs are male. The majority of people who train to be hairdressers are female).
Does that make the all chefs or hairdressers tantrum-throwers or gossips??
You can't make blanket statements like NETY. Well . . . You can but you won't get much support.
As a millennial in my 30s, it has NOTHING to do with the generation, rather, how sheltered or even inexperienced one can be with dealing with challenging personalities.
As someone who has been bullied-made fun of, gotten into fights, etc, etc-as a child, it seems as though when someone is expecting one to challenged themselves out of their comfort zone, the challenged party will derive feelings of being uncomfortable, and if the person is direct, then they are "mean" or "bullies"; I have seen allegedly "grown folks" play the same games, even though we are WELL past middle school; some in positions of leadership.
Agree. I'm a mid 30s millennial and I don't cry bullying at every cross-eyed nurse or doctor. Then again, I was raised to be self-sufficient and experienced true bullying of the emotional AND physical variety in my teens and early adulthood.
I think it's kinda like the immune system - if it isn't exposed to the real deal a few times, it overreacts to more mild stimuli.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
Im just a student and I HATE the term NETY.
Why? Because bullies will be bullies regardless of what profession they are in. So either that person is miserable or you are working in a setting where management allows bullying to fester or both.
I worked in retail and retail management for 5 years. There are nasty mean people in management and staff. How come there is no handy term for retail employees who "eat their young". Because it's stupid.
I think that by claiming NETY we perpetuate the myth and also absolve ourselves of any fault in the situation, whether partially or wholly.
I'm in my 2nd semester, all my instructors have been great. We have one clinical instructor who is a bona fide bully. Even staff from a clinical sites reported her once. And yet she's still here (see a management problem). She's miserable. I think she truly believes that it's her job to toughen up us nursing students and uses that as an excuse for her behavior.
A nurse is less than excited to have a student assigned to her patient? I do my best to make myself less of a burden rather than complain that "my nurse doesn't like me". Because she's not my nurse. I'm not her responsibility. She doesn't get paid to teach me. She's busy. And I have yet to have a bad interaction with any of my coassigned nurses. And part of it I think it's because I don't believe in NETY. Just sad, mean people.
Welcome to the profession. Starting out with a clue is half the battle. I apologize in advance for anyone who turns out to be more of a hindrance than a help, but I suspect you'll find a way to learn from even the hindrances.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
You guys know me. Come ON. It was 20th century poets on final jeopardy. I got it right! Who is TS Eliot?
But I forgot the question.
You got it? I blew that one and so did all the contestants. (I did think of Carl Sandburg, but that didn't seem quite right.) But I'll try not to show my jealousy. (Or is it jealously?)
)
believeallispossible
171 Posts
[quote name=WE are the bullies for trying (nicely) to set her straight.....oh well.....
[/quote]
Oh my. Once again, never said you all are the bullies. Since I never personally seen you attack another person in the workplace (and the fact that I don't even know YOU), it's kind of hard to judge you for that !
And secondly, my first comments on this post were about my own personal experiences with bullying that included nurses eating their young, and mentioned how jealously can play a factor in bullying. Jealously along with power and control, any many other things.
Nurses eating their young, backstabbing, humiliation, ignoring, gossip, purposely setting others up for failure, are just a few examples of BULLYING = which you don't get.
I am firmly standing my ground. The end.