The Role Of Bullying In Nursing

The healthcare industry is thriving now more than ever before, but behind the thriving industry are the healthcare workers which are taking a beating to keep the industry growing. Stress among health workers, especially nurses has reached all time heights. During 2014 the number of sick days rose to 17 per year and stress had grown by 37 percent in the previous three years Donnelly (2015). Now nursing is a stressful job but the burnout rate shows that there is more to the picture than just stress. 34 percent of current nurses had planned to look for a new position in the upcoming year Monegain (2013) With burnout on the rise many nurses are citing stress and Nurse to Nurse bullying as primary causes for wanting to leave the field. Along with these causes of burnout, some attention needs to focused on what steps can be done to …show more content…
Bullying in nursing takes place in all professions of nursing, from the private to the commercial sector. According to Townsend (2012) 18 percent of nurses have experienced some type of abuse either verbal or physical at work, and another 60 percent have seen abuse or bullying take place on the job. This is a cycle that like stress does not have an end in sight, new nurses are bullied by other nurses and when those new get into higher positions they begin to bully nurses under them. Around 60 percent of new registered nurses (RN) will quit or begin looking for new jobs within six months from the start of an abusive encounter Townsend (2012). It is not just nurses switching jobs because of bullying that’s the problem, up to one third of new nurses have felt compelled to leave the nursing profession as a whole due to horizontal bullying Townsend (2012). Nurse to nurse bullying only exacerbates the nursing stress situation, causing new nurses to quit the field of nursing will only cause more shortages which will cause stress rates to