Incivility Essay

Incivility Incivility can take on many forms and can have an array of signs and symptoms. Incivility is also known as lateral violence; the old adage of “nurses eat their young” is a prime example of incivility existing for quite some time. Most, if not all, nurses have either experience lateral violence or witnessed it at one point in their career. It is both surprising and disappointing that nurses treat each other this way, the same profession who vows to care for complete strangers without judgment. As an educator, I cannot help but wonder: do we adequately prepare nursing students to encounter these situations? Not once do I recall learning about bullying in nursing school, the verbiage lateral violence or incivility was not “known” at that time. According to Schneider (2016), educators must intercede and be held accountable to break the viscous cycle of lateral violence. Faculty must model positive behavior and create a safe, welcoming environment. Students may experience or observe incivility while in nursing school either from faculty, peers, or during a clinical rotation. If such an event occurs, debriefing must take place; to allow the student to process the situation and speak to the feelings that arose during the occurrence. …show more content…
When I spoke to my administrator, she was not familiar with the term incivility, but was however familiar with the term lateral violence. The policy given to me was regarding violence in the workplace and described the protection of nurses from patient harassment. According Dimarino (2011), leaders of an ambulatory setting have a duty to provide education on lateral violence and create a positive culture of caring. I began to summarize Dimarino’s article and promised to pass it along in hopes to create a policy for our