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Lateral violence can cause distrust among coworkers, isolate victims and affect their work, cause depression, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and even suicidal thoughts. (Becher & Visovsky, 2012)

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Why do nurses eat their young? What can nurses do about workplace bullying?

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Why do nurses eat their young? What can nurses do about workplace bullying?

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Bullying in Nursing: Why Nurses 'Eat their Young' and What to Do About It

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The dedication of nurses to the wellbeing of their patients makes it even more shocking to hear that 65 percent of nurses surveyed by American Nurse Today have witnessed some form of nursing incivility.

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Nursing is stressful! How can we address burnout and stop bullying?

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Bullying and burnout is a huge problem among leadership in the 21st century and it's time we started talking about it!

Gretchen was excited when she accepted a leadership position at a prominent hospital in her hometown. She had worked at a local community hospital for the last 6 years and advanced as far as she could go. Now she had an opportunity to work at a large teaching hospital as the manager on a busy telemetry unit.

Within 2 months, Gretchen was questioning whether or not she made the right decision. Although she was looking forward to spending her days helping to improve clinical outcomes, get involved with quality improvement, and adopting evidence based practice, she found herself spending the majority of her time dealing with the disruptive behaviors of her employees and rapid turnover due to burnout.

Why didn't anyone warn or prepare her?

DID YOU KNOW?

60% of all healthcare employees report feelings of burnout. There are 3.1 million nurses in the United States. If you do the math, that means more than 2 million of us feel burned out.

According to Linda Aiken, more than 40% of hospital nurses report burnout levels that exceed the norms for healthcare employees.

Numerous studies show that 73% - 90% of nurses experience or witness bullying in their workplace. Although physician to nurse bullying exists, most incidents involved nurse to nurse.

Workplace bullying has been linked to intent to leave, poor patient outcomes and poor productivity.

Estimated costs are $30,000 - $100,000 per year per individual and if it's a specialty nurse, the costs increase to $145,000.

We are hemorrhaging really great nurses to these problems.

Bullying and burnout are quickly becoming the leadership challenges of the 21 st century.

THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP

Leaders need to build a culture that rejects bullying and addresses burnout.

Start talking about it - The problem is that we KNOW nurses are burned out. We KNOW nurses eat their young, but nobody is talking about it. We all need to start engaging in conversations about bullying and burnout.

Include these topics as a standing agenda item at your leadership meetings.

Talk about it during your staff meetings with your employees.

Ask employees for their input on what your unit/department can do to reduce stress and burnout.

Acquire a new set of skills - Addressing bullying and burnout are skills that can be learned.

Provide training and education to leaders AND staff.

Post articles, resources, tips, and tools regarding how to communicate professionally; how to reduce stress, etc.

Offer coaching and support.

Stop ignoring bad behavior - Leaders have been using silence as a strategy for far too long and START taking action.

START setting behavioral expectations with employees.

Partner with human resources to address employee's who are in violation of your code of conduct/policy.

Don't ignore reports of disruptive behavior. Take action right away!

Start supporting staff AND each other - The healthcare environment is stressful because of the nature of what we do. However, we are not super human and need support too.

Conduct debriefings after really stressful days/codes/patient care situations. This is the time when you encourage staff to talk about what happened and allow them to vent so that they don't internalize their stress or take their frustrations home.

Offer additional resources to your nurses, especially if they are short staffed. Most nurses can tackle any patient load if they have the right support staff.

Encourage fun. Laughing is a powerful coping mechanism to stress and burnout. Find ways to infuse fun into the work environment.

The key here is to take action against bullying and burnout because they are not going to go away any time soon without your help.

Gretchen really struggled for a while until she finally stopped taking a passive approach and started taking action. She partnered with her human resource representative and her director regarding her toxic employees. They created a clear plan, set behavioral expectations, and then held employees accountable (she did terminate 2 really toxic employees [one nurse and one unit secretary] because they were not willing to change their behavior). She learned from the staff that a lot of their burnout was caused from not having enough support staff. Gretchen spent one shift working with her nurses hip to hip and realized WHY they were so stressed! She immediately petitioned to add 3 more nursing assistant positions and got them. She also restructured some of the scheduling to account for high volume times.

It was rough for 6 months but once the toxic employees were gone and the staff had more support, things turned around. A year later, Gretchen's unit is fully staffed and now they are starting their first quality improvement project!!

Patient satisfaction, safety and quality are major concerns for nurse leaders, but if you ignore your bullying and burnout problem, you will never achieve your strategic outcomes.

Be kind. Take care. Stay connected!

If you like this post, I recommend the following:
Share with your colleagues and friends using the social share buttons. Subscribe to my blog. Sign up to receive my latest updates and other resources via my website.
Dr. Renee Thompson works with healthcare organizations that want to overcome the leadership and clinical challenges their people face every day.

If you'd like to find out more about her programs, please visit her website www.reneethompsonspeaks.com .

Contact Renee today at renee@rtconnections.com to bring her to your organization to talk about ending the cycle of nurse bullying.

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Bullying & Burnout: The Leadership Challenges of the 21st Century - RTConnections

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Bullying and burnout is a huge problem among leadership in the 21st century and it's time we started talking about it! Gretchen was excited when she accepted a leadership position at a prominent hospital in her hometown. She had worked at a local community hospital for the last 6 years and advanced as far as she could go.

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Empowering nurses to stand up to bullying!

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Empowering nurses to stand up to bullying!

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Bullying doesn't only happen in classrooms or playgrounds. In fact, it's very common in the healthcare profession. New nurses and even those who have been in practice for several years have their fair share of bullying in nursing, getting bullied and seeing someone else falling prey to it.

When nurses eat their young, what exactly do you need to do? Here's a list of responses you can take to address nurse bullying.

1. Confront the behavior

One of the best ways to address bullying is to confront the person and the behavior. However, because we often feel inferior and weaker to those who bully us, stepping up for ourselves can be difficult.

"One of the best ways to address bullying is to confront the person and the behavior."

Before talking to your co-worker, it's best if you can practice the things you're going to say beforehand. This action allows you to build better self-confidence and to think of the best way to deliver your points. You can ask a friend to hear your thoughts or use a mirror to rehearse positive body language.

Confrontation should happen in a private area and not where patients can see you arguing with each other. You should also avoid catching the bully off guard, such as calling him out when all the other nurses are in the area, as it will only put him in defensive mode.

2. Don't be a victim

Bullies feed on people who have low self-esteem. If they know they can pick on you, there's a good chance you'll find them gnawing on the remaining confidence you have.

To avoid falling victim to bullying, do a spot check and focus more on what you can do. By concentrating on your accomplishments, you can improve your self-esteem without directly ignoring your co-worker.

"I once had a head nurse who always had something demeaning to say to us even though we fulfilled our shifts well. One time, before she even had the chance to negatively criticize my work, I approached her first. After greeting her well, I started reporting everything about my patient. I gathered all my confidence that time, and it was the best move I've ever made," a ward nurse said.

Bully nurses often target the newly hires or those they feel aren't deserving of a promotion. They also like to pick on nurses who they think are receiving special favors and treatments from doctors or other coworkers.

3. Find support

If your co-worker isn't open to a friendly dialogue or if you feel threatened by his behavior, then it's a wise move if you can seek your nurse manager's help. The manager can establish standards for what behaviors are acceptable or not. He can also impose policies, procedures and even the repercussion of bullying in your workplace.

To be effective, your nurse manager should:

Be strict with implementing rules against bullying

Be fair in assessing the situation

Be always available to address the concerns of his nurses

Respond well to complaints so as not to lose trust

4. It's not your fault

Nurses who resort to bullying, most of the time, feel inadequate of themselves. If they see you as someone who's prettier and smarter than they are, they feel threatened. By instinct, they'll think of ways to degrade and humiliate you.

They can give you excessive workloads or publicly scrutinize your work. They can also yell at you for not completing a task correctly. Some bullies may even spread rumors and gossip just to downgrade you. Although these things can be demeaning, it's important that you know who you are and what you're capable of doing. Once you give in, you'll only encourage them to continue their behavior.

Nurses eating their young isn't new. As a matter of fact, it's one of the most common reasons why nurses quit their jobs. It isn't only damaging to the profession, but it's costly as well. Every year, bullying costs around $4 Billion.
Have you experienced bullying in your work? How did you address it?

Rozzette Cabrera is a registered nurse pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a professional writer. She spent a few years putting her profession into practice until she decided to take her chances with freelance writing over a year ago. Her life has never been the same since then.

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When Nurses Eat Their Young: 4 Ways to Respond to Bullying in Nursing

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Bullying doesn't only happen in classrooms or playgrounds. In fact, it's very common in the healthcare profession. New nurses and even those who have been in practice for several years have their fair share of bullying in nursing, getting bullied and seeing someone else falling prey to it.

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The cost of lateral violence

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Nurse bullying is becoming surprisingly common in the workplace. It can be identified by a persistent pattern of mistreatment, including verbal, nonverbal, psychological, or even physical.

Staying informed and approaching the workplace with the tips below in mind will empower you to avoid nurse bullying in the workplace-or quickly resolve it, should it occur.

1. Remain confident

By remaining confident in your abilities, you can avoid being a target of bullying behaviors. Remember, you successfully completed school and received a license to practice in your state. You have earned your spot alongside the other nurses and should be treated with respect and dignity.

2. Be professional

It is vital that you remain calm, collected, and professional in your responses to a bullying individual. Avoid any behaviors or actions-like arguing, yelling, aggressive body language, or profane language-that can come back to negatively reflect on your level of professionalism. Don't let their behaviors influence yours; you are not the one with the problem.

3. Confront the bully

It is important that you share your concerns with the individual who is bullying you. This is best done informally after a shift and away from other coworkers. In most cases, the person will be unaware and will apologize, causing your working relationship to improve.

4. Report bullying behaviors

If bullying behaviors continue after you confront the individual(s), it is imperative that you notify your nursing manager immediately. Make sure you provide detailed information regarding the behaviors demonstrated, any actions you took to try to establish resolve, and how these behaviors are affecting you at work.

5. Advocate for peer-to-peer accountability

Creating a culture of peer accountability is one of the best ways to eliminate nurse bullying. By holding everyone on the team equally accountable for their behaviors, upholding standards of professionalism, and meeting all standards of practice, bullying behaviors decrease and work morale increases.
As with any problem, resolution begins with awareness. Share this post with others to help stop nurse bullying in the workplace-and help create an environment of respect and leadership for you and your fellow nurses.

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Nurse Bullying in the Workplace | Kaplan Test Prep

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Nurse bullying is becoming surprisingly common in the workplace. It can be identified by a persistent pattern of mistreatment, including verbal, nonverbal, psychological, or even physical. Staying informed and approaching the workplace with the tips below in mind will empower you to avoid nurse bullying in the workplace-or quickly resolve it, should it occur.

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Have you been bullied before? How did it make you feel? Were you ever bullied at work?

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A how-to-guide on handling a situation when YOU are the victim of lateral violence

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You Don't Have to Take it! How to Respond to Bullying in Nursing

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Incivility defined and HOW to respond effectively, directly, and respectfully! Want more? See chapter 4 of my student text THINK Like a Nurse! http://www.keithrn.com/strengthen-student-transition/ INCIVILITY Essentials for Nurse Educators: http://www.keithrn.com/product/incivility/

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Nurse Mendoza discusses his experience with horizontal violence

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Greetings my fellow Youtube Nurses, this is coming to you from MightyNurse.com! Don't forget to go scope them out!!! So today's topic is about "Nurses Eating Their Young" I give a few reasons why this happens and share my personal experience!!!