Seeing Students Squirm: Nursing Students' Experiences of Bullying Behaviors During Clinical Rotations

Abstract

Background Bullying remains a troubling problem in the nursing profession. Nursing students may encounter bullying behavior in clinical settings. However nursing students may not be adequately prepared to recognize and handle bullying behavior when it occurs. The purpose of this study was to gain greater understanding of nursing students’ experiences of bullying behaviors in the clinical setting. Method Using a descriptive qualitative approach, eight focus groups were held with 56 undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students from four college campuses. Focus group data were coded and analyzed for themes. Results Four categories of themes were identified: bullying behaviors, rationale for bullying, response to bullying, and recommendations to address bullying. Each category and its corresponding themes are presented. Conclusion Interventions for nurse educators to address bullying of nursing students in clinical settings are presented.

A ‘rite of passage?’: Bullying experiences of nursing students in Australia

“…It is an opportunity for them to practice and hone their clinical skills while at the same time developing habits and behaviours that will help to shape them into a competent health care professional in the context of real-world time pressures and resource restraints. The comments made by respondents in this study have shown that nursing students are experiencing an additional burden that permeates these important opportunities in their professional development, findings that echo those of earlier work (Bowllan, 2015;Smith, Gillespie, Brown, & Grubb, 2016).…”

“…The findings show that the participants experienced being belittled, humiliated, criticised, excluded and subjected to various forms and degrees of verbal, physical and, sexual and racial abuse. In a recent study, Smith et al (2016) cited similar examples of bullying behaviours, although these were primarily non-physical. That study also described students being exposed to non-verbal behaviours such as eye-rolling that reflect the passive-aggressiveness experienced by participants in the current study.…”

“…A perception of bullying as a being 'part of the job' contributes significantly to the problem. One participant described being bullied as a 'rite of passage', a theme identified by Smith et al (2016) in examining the 'rationale' for bullying of nursing students.…”

“…This situation is coupled with the issue of increasing cost of providing healthcare services at a time when many countries are continuing to reduce their health expenditure. Such conditions in the contemporary healthcare setting may go some way to explaining why bullying persists (Smith et al, 2016).…”

“Nurses eat their young”: A novel bullying educational program for student nurses

“…Reported reasons newly licensed nurses are targeted for bullying include bullying being a rite of passage, a norm against new employees, and a result of environmental/organizational factors such as high job demand. [15] …”