Fast Facts on Combating Nurse Bullying, Incivility, and Workplace Violence

Incivility, bullying, and workplace violence in nursing is a significant problem–so much so that the American Nurses Association (ANA) developed a position statement in 2015 addressing the issue (ANA, 2015). ANA’s Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements notes that nurses are required to “create an ethical environment and culture of civility and kindness, treating colleagues, coworkers, employees, students, and others with dignity and respect”. This book explores the topic and gives the reader practical hands-on skills on how to identify and deal with this phenomenon. It provides detailed information, emphasizing why it is not okay to put new nurses “through the ringer” because we were once in that position. The book is intended to be a “field guide” to bullying and incivility: how to define, recognize, and deal with the behavior. It helps in understanding workplace violence in health care and the cost of nurse bullying on the health care system. The book explores the effects of bullying on the nurse and how to resolve and heal these effects, and the movement for formal workplace bullying legislation. It describes the responsibilities of nursing leadership and the employer and explains how to resist nurse bullying. Finally the book presents four case studies on bullying and the student nurse, bullying and the novice nurse, bullying in nursing education, and bullying in nursing administration.