Nurses and bullies...

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So, this might seem controversial, but it's something I noticed while working at a hospital for almost 3 years.

I was lucky enough to work with Physical and Occupational Therapists (so we did therapy in every department of the hospital -- sans NICU).

In saying that, I think part of the reason an NP is more appealing to me than a BSN / RN program is because I saw A LOT of bullying in the nursing field on the BSN / RN or CNA level. As an NP, I'm sure it could happen, but I feel like it would happen less at that level.

I mean some of them were just downright B-words. And, I don't chalk it up to a bad day (because this behavior was tied to them on a frequent basis when I saw them).

And while it was pretty prevalent in all levels, it seemed that the ones in charge were the worst.

It's almost like Dante's levels of H*ll in terms of moving up the ranks of mean (not including NP, CRNA, Midwife or other higher level nursing positions).

Crappy attitude, didn't want to be bothered by patients (or other healthcare workers), nasty disposition, thought highly of themselves and looked down on others etc.

I have friends and family who are nurses in hospitals, nursing homes, home health, school systems and it doesn't seem like it stops there (in terms of environment and bullying).

I've worked in a few fields and while bullying can happen anywhere, it seems like nursing has a high ratio of this type of catty, mean behavior.

It's one of the reasons I'm not sure I could handle this field.

It's not because I can't handle myself around bullies, but I know that I'd put one of these bullies in their place and probably get fired over it (because they either tend to be in charge or "in" with the people who are in charge or just lie or are manipulative).

My tolerance for that sort of behavior is really low and I'd definitely knock them off of their bully peg which wouldn't bode well for anyone involved.

So, what has your experience been with bullying in the nursing field? And, how did you handle it?

Is it as prevalent as it seems?

And, do you feel like it contributes to the issues with burn out in the nursing field?

What advice would you give to a new grad who encountered this type of behavior?

Specializes in ED, psych.
Uh oh, you have identified me.

I am nick named the Terminator, most nurses who work on my unit a few days or weeks run screaming from the unit. Then they lose their license due to patient abandonment. Which falls right into my evil plan to uhmmmm,, well......let me think some more about my evil plan. I have so many evil plans, oh I remember, rid hospitals of nurses and have robots take over. Then I program the robots to kill all the patients. Then uhmmmm......let me think. No yeah....no more sick people, ...hospitals close saving the government billions of dollars and I get elected president. Bwah bwah bwah

Of course now that I have told you I will have to kill you. I DO know who you are.

I KNEW IT :nailbiting:.

(the evil oozes out from your posts ... a black aura permeates around your user name... brown book? Should be called black book!)

Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

You have friends and family who are nurses? And they're all bullies? Or all victims? Or a combination? If you think you should give the profession a swerve, you're probably right.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

You have given so many examples of your observations of what you consider to be bullying that I'm surprised you would even still consider nursing.

Uh oh pixierose, black book is the secret password that awakens the robots. Now I will have to think up another password gosh darn you!

Pixierose is a pretty good password. Uh oh, now I've told you. Sorry but I will have to kill you also.

First off, you may get better discussion if the name of your thread did not generalize every single nurse as being a bully. I can 100% say I am not a bully. And the two different units I work on....never seen an issue.

Advice to a new grad: ignore it. Go to work and learn how to be a nurse. Find someone who can be your mentor. If there are actual issues, look into conflict resolution. Most organizations have resources available to those who need support.

Just curious, but why are you so against nurses? Have you felt personally victimized as an occupational therapist? When I have 5-6 patients who are calling me every 5 minutes from 7 am-7 pm, I just don't have time to be standing around having conversations. Some shifts are just crazy. BUT, that doesn't mean I won't talk to other health care workers with respect and assist when I can.

And have you been around a lot of NP's? Just curious why you feel higher education exempts them from "bullying" behaviours?

Oceangirl,

I actually meant to title the post "Nurses and bullies" but I had already submitted and there was no way to edit the title...just the post itself, so in fairness I wasn't trying to generalize an entire field.

I will say that the hospital I worked in had quite a few bullying nurses.

To explain what I mean by bullying:

1) Standing around talking about patients, coworkers, other healthcare workers in derogatory ways (think "Mean Girls").

2) Outright rude when you would try to ask them questions about the patient before doing therapy with them.

3) Something as simple as saying "hi" and you'd get an attitude.

4) Rolling eyes when someone asked a question (whether a fellow nurse or other healthcare worker).

5) Talking down to CNAs who needed their help

Those are just a few examples.

I want to say that I'm not against nurses. As I mentioned, I have several in my family (and friends) ranging from LPN, BSN / RN and MSN and NP.

I have a lot of respect for nurses and all of the work they do.

I just didn't like the some of the nurses that I encountered at that hospital (and friends and family have stated similar occurrences at their facilities as well).

I shadowed quite a few NPs and PAs during my time at that hospital and it seemed like it wasn't as much of an issue with them.

Granted, it was a teaching hospital so perhaps things are different at other hospitals, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

While I am a convinced supporter of the point of view about prevalence of bullying and lateral violence in modern American nursing being so high that it should be considered a cultural norm, I might side with previous posters this time. Nurses are supposed to wear so many hats and be responsible for so many functions nowadays that they, plain and simple, have no time to be super-polite with everyone and attend immediately to everything. Occupational therapy is hardly ever the highest priority in patient's care, and PT/OT people do not fill those Press-Ganey surveys. So, yeah, anything that PT/OT people think as being "very important" for what they are doing at that moment is likely to be at the lowest bottom of priority list for every nurse they address. Furthermore, your 5th request to unhook that lady's IV so that you can work with her automatically goes below that call light going off 4th time in 3 min (and every one of them being for downright silly reasons) because call light comes from "paying customer" who will fill that survey.

Is it pleasant? Definitely, not. Is it bullying? Even I would say "no". Nurses are "justdojngtheirjobs", like you do. They just have WAY more things they are responsible for, and they are no more able to be in more than one place at once than you do. Please make an effort to understand this.

And, BTW, while bullying is less common among peers in SOME Advanced Practice nursing specialties, it is a more than a well-known problem among CRNAs and CNMs.

Fair enough and this makes sense when viewing it from your perspective.

What a terrible thread title. You could easily have posted a thread about bullying in nursing without painting the entire profession as a monolith.

I actually meant to title the thread "Nurses and bullies" but had already submitted it and was unable to edit it later. The only thing I could edit was the body or content of the post, not the title.

However, I did send a message to an Admin in order to change it.

Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.

Just be aware of how some therapists often treat nursing...as nursing are beneath them and have little brains with our menial educations. Not giving a second thought to ALL that we have to do and juggle but acting as if we need to drop everything and be ready at their beck and call. I often don't think therapy will err really understand as they often see one patient at a time and it's ok if they don't have time to get to everyone...do you see how well this would go over in nursing?

Specializes in Transitional Nursing.

I see a lot of posts and comments on this topic, and it's rarely bullying.

Not getting along with someone, being rude or dismissive to them, refusing to talk to them... all those things are super aggravating but they aren't bullying.

Here's an example of bullying

A veteran nurse, lets call her Martha, changes orders in the IMAR all the time in order to avoid giving meds on her shift. A new grad nurse, lets call her Betsy, sees an order for 70 units of 70/30 insulin to be given at 0600, and decided not to give it with a glucose of 110.

Martha gets to work and is upset that Betsy didn't give the insulin and tells Betsy to go ahead and give it. Betsy thinks about it and decideds to clarify with the MD who is there. MD is upset that insulin is ordered for that time and lets Betsy know that protocol is to give insulins with meals, unless it is 100% long acting.

Martha subsequently tries to get Betsy in trouble by setting her up, telling her a patient requested MOM when they actually requested mylanta, accusing her of not giving meds and even hiding meds so that they can't be given.

That is bullying, and it has no place in nursing. The other stuff is just personality issues we all come across through out life, not just in nursing.

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Bullying:

Bullying is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate,

or aggressively dominate others. The behavior is often repeated and

habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception, by the bully or

by others, of an imbalance of social or physical power, which distinguishes

bullying from conflict.[1] Behaviors used to assert such domination

can include verbal harassment or threat, physical assault or coercion,

and such acts may be directed repeatedly towards particular targets.

Source: Wikipedia

Specializes in ED, psych.
Uh oh pixierose, black book is the secret password that awakens the robots. Now I will have to think up another password gosh darn you!

Pixierose is a pretty good password. Uh oh, now I've told you. Sorry but I will have to kill you also.

Bully!!!!!!!!

I actually meant to title the thread "Nurses and bullies" but had already submitted it and was unable to edit it later. The only thing I could edit was the body or content of the post, not the title.

However, I did send a message to an Admin in order to change it.

We received your request, nightingale4me, and have changed the thread title to: Nurses and bullies

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