Various issues exist in the healthcare setting to the extent of affecting how they offer healthcare services. A major concern is nurse bullying. Nurse bullying is a form of incivility that exists in healthcare. Nurse bullying is a major issue that should be addressed because it triggers high levels of nurse turnover and low levels of patient satisfaction. Nurse bullying should also be addressed since it causes humiliation and distress. Nurse bullying triggers patient safety issues, nurse safety concerns, and disruptions in the provision of patient care services (Karatuna et al., 2020). This paper provides a description of nurse bullying, its effect on quality of care and patient safety levels, ways in which professional standards of practice in nursing should be portrayed, diverse roles of nurse leaders and managers in addressing nurse bullying, professionalism in healthcare settings, and a leadership approach that can address nurse bullying.
Nurse Bullying Description and Effects on Patient Safety Levels and Quality of Care
As supported by Shorey and Wong (2021), nurse bullying is a major concern in the healthcare setting and it manifests in different platforms including boardrooms, hospital settings, and nursing institutions. Nurse professionals in clinical rotations are also subjected to bullying. Nurses who are bullied are likely to experience high levels of burnout and fatigue compared nurses who are not bullied. Due to this, they may not be in a position to offer quality patient care services to their patients. The implication is that due to nurse bullying, healthcare professionals are not in a position to offer quality patient care services. Bullied nurses are likely to be anxious and stressed (Shorey & Wong, 2021). These aspects are linked with low quality of care. When nurse professionals are bullied, they lack the necessary motivation to offer quality care to their patients. There is a connection between nurse bullying and decline in patient safety levels and lack of quality care (Shorey & Wong, 2021).
Application of Professional Nursing Standards of Practice
Professionals standards of practice should be applied in the nursing setting to ensure that patients obtain quality and safe care. Nursing standards of practice should be applied to ensure that the issue of nurse bullying is addressed effectively. This can be attained by paying attention to addressing non-acceptable behaviors and embracing behaviors that are considered acceptable. The American Nurses Association (2015), offers the Professional Standards of Practices that nurses should adhere to, in addition to nursing leaders and managers creating proper guidelines that should be followed in the course of how nurses offer quality care services. The standards of practice hold that there is a need for nurse professionals and leaders to establish a positive setting in which healthcare workers can operate. This can entail the creation and implementation of a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to ensuring that nurses are protected from bullying. The standards ensure that nurses understand the do’s and don’ts when interacting with other nurses (Fontes et al., 2019).
Role of Nurse Leaders and Managers in Addressing Nurse Bullying
Nursing leaders and managers are tasked with addressing various issues in the healthcare context. They are expected to come up with ways of addressing the issue of nurse bullying. The approaches that leaders apply in the healthcare setting determine whether or not they are able to discourage and reduce the prevalence of nurse bullying. Nursing leaders and managers set policies and guidelines that aim at promoting patient safety (Fontes et al., 2019). Yosep et al. (2022) indicated that nurse leaders and managers also set guidelines that inform healthcare professionals about what should be done to achieve quality care outcomes for their patients. Nurse leaders utilize personal connections and knowledge when motivating healthcare professionals to improve the quality of patient care. They ensure that they show how they value the nurses and engage them in team building activities that address patient quality concerns. On the other hand, nursing managers facilitate positive work conditions that enhance optimal safe patient care. They also strive to create open communication with the healthcare professionals to support and encourage quality care standards (Yosep et al., 2022).
Ensuring Professionalism in Diverse Healthcare Settings
It is necessary to ensure that there is professionalism in how different healthcare issues are addressed. Nursing leaders and managers should focus on being consistent when it comes to handling the issue of nurse bullying. This means that there should be consistent application of guidelines and principles on what contributes to nurse bullying. This would ensure that there is unison in regards to identifying what nurses should not do as pertaining to nurse bullying. The nurse leaders and managers should ensure that nurse bullying issues are addressed professionally, while being keen to attain respect and dignity in the healthcare setting. They should ensure that the ways of addressing nurse bullying are professional and ethical (Kim et al., 2019).
While paying attention to the element of addressing nurse bullying, nursing leaders and managers can consider the use of existing organizational resources. A key resource that can be used is life skills training. The healthcare workers can be trained on certain life skills they should embrace as they strive to communicate with their professionals about not engaging in nurse bullying. They can also consider the recommendation and use of counseling for the nurses who have been bullied (Jeong & Jang, 2019). This would ensure that they are helped to address emotional and mental outcomes that occurred due to being bullied.
Leadership Style to Address Nurse Bullying
There are different leadership styles that can be used to address the issue of nurse bullying. One of the styles that can be used is the transformational leadership style. Through the use of the transformational leadership style, different individuals are able to be committed and visionary. The utilization of this transformational leadership style can motivate healthcare professionals to have respect and demonstrate high levels of integrity when interacting with those around them (Fontes et al., 2019). The use of transformational leadership is known to depict high levels of motivation for the healthcare professionals. The use of the transformational leadership style would address nurse bullying since it emphasizes on relational communication. This form of communication is key in reducing the risk of bullying by ensuring that the nurse leaders and managers encourage the healthcare professionals to be open about challenges they may be experiencing. This way, there would be emphasis on being open with situations that can lead to nurse bullying. By encouraging reporting of nurse bullying incidents, nursing leaders and managers can rely on transformational leadership to reduce the incidence of nurse bullying (Fontes et al., 2019).
Conclusion
Nurse bullying is a major issue that can cause adverse outcomes related to patient safety and quality outcomes. Nursing leaders and managers are expected to identify ways in which they can reduce nurse bullying incidences. Their strategies should be professional in a way that they encourage positive interactions among nurse professionals. Nurse bullying should be dealt with since it is detrimental if not addressed promptly. The nurse leaders and managers can identify positive ways that can help achieve proper training for healthcare professionals on what contributes to nurse bullying and how they report incidents. Nurses can reduce the potential to engage in nurse bullying by adhering to the professional standards of practice.
References
Fontes, K. B., Alarcão, A. C. J., Santana, R. G., Pelloso, S. M., & de Barros Carvalho, M. D. (2019). Relationship between leadership, bullying in the workplace and turnover intention among nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(3), 535-542. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12708
Jeong, G. Y., & Jang, H. J. (2019). The effects of nursing organizational culture, work performance and workplace bullying type on workplace bullying consequence of nurses. The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education, 25(4), 424-435. https://doi.org/10.5977/jkasne.2019.25.4.424
Karatuna, I., Jönsson, S., & Muhonen, T. (2020). Workplace bullying in the nursing profession: A cross-cultural scoping review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 111, 103628. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2020.103628
Shorey, S., & Wong, P. Z. E. (2021). A qualitative systematic review on nurses’ experiences of workplace bullying and implications for nursing practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 77(11), 4306-4320. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14912
Yosep, I., Hikmat, R., & Mardhiyah, A. (2022, August). Types of nursing intervention to reduce impact of bullying and aggression on nurses in the workplace. In Healthcare (Vol. 10, No. 8, p. 1463). MDPI. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10081463
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