Reply 1
Judith
Bullying and horizontal violence are serious problems in healthcare settings. And they have harmed the quality of treatment given to patients. In the majority of situations, senior health workers, particularly nurses, bully the younger nurses. This occurs when senior nurses demand that junior nurses execute tasks that they should be able to complete on their own. By the end of the day, the younger nurses usually have a huge workload to complete. Overworking causes stress, which has a negative impact on their mental health.
The nurse mentor can promote professional socialization by mentoring. And educating all health care employees on the value of good socialization. And the importance of respecting everyone despite their flaws. The nurse mentor can help with this by organizing meetings. And conferences to educate health care providers about the values that should be emphasized in order to foster good socialization.
Gillespie, G. L., Grubb, P. L., Brown, K., Boesch, M. C., & Ulrich, D. L. (2017). “nurses eat their young”: A novel bullying educational program for student nurses. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 7(7), 11. https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v7n7p11
Reply 2
Alexandra
Yes, I do believe that bullying a serious issue in the clinical setting because it doesn’t just happen in one place. It can happen anywhere. As nurses, we do our best to give the best healthcare experience. And to save as many lives as possible to. However, there are other nurses who somehow frown upon those they feel are not “up to the job”, to put it bluntly. I feel that the trend of bullying starts within the schooling years where everyone seems to be competing for higher test scores. Or letting their egos get the better of them because they believe that makes them better than others. That shouldn’t be the case at all because we are supposed to help each other. And give constructive criticism to help future nurses improve on their self-esteem.
The American Nurses Association
The American Nurses Association defines nurse bullying as “repeated, unwanted harmful actions intended to humiliate, offend and cause distress in the recipient,” calling it “a very serious issue that threatens patient safety, RN safety and the nursing profession as a whole (Zelonka, 2019 ). This could also have contributed the fact that some nursing students might leave their nursing programs before finishing because they don’t believe that they can trust anyone in the field or feel good enough for it. In other cases, the older nurses in the hospital tend to single out their younger colleagues thinking that they don’t have what it takes to be a nurse. Sometimes, people don’t realize that they are being bullied.
On the other hand, if they do, most don’t speak up and put a stop to it, therefore, effecting their work performance and patient’s safety. A nurse mentor should observe how the nurses interact with each other on the field so they could detect any sign of hostility between them. Also, there should be a routine meeting with all the nurses to discuss any frustrations towards other workers to resolve the issue earlier on. In addition, the nurse mentor should consider team building workshops to allow nurses to come to terms with each other’s differences whether they are doing the bullying or not. This is way everyone can find a common ground and not see each other as enemies. Bullying, is an unfortunate disease that can spread like wildfire unless someone has the courage enough to stand up to it. No voice should be silenced in a matter like this.