Effective Leadership and Collaboration: Combating Bullying in Nursing, Lecture notes of Financial Accounting

Download Effective Leadership and Collaboration: Combating Bullying in Nursing and more Lecture notes Financial Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! Running head:MANAGING CONFLICT: COMBATING BULLYING IN NURSING 1 Managing Conflict: Combating Bullying in Nursing Through Effective Leadership and Collaboration Chamberlain College of Nursing NR 447: RN Collaborative Healthcare MANAGING CONFLICT: COMBATING BULLYING IN NURSING 2 Managing Conflict: Combating Bullying in Nursing Through Effective Leadership and Collaboration Conflicts in the workplace are inevitable andunfortunately healthcare is not an exception. Nurses can experience various conflicts and if not addressed and managed properly these issues will only continue to grow. When nurses experience continued conflicts at work patient safety, quality of care, staff morale, and the overall atmosphere of the unit can all be affected. This paper will discuss the implications of bullying among nurses and effective conflict resolution towards this issue. Leadership and resolving conflict go hand in hand, and nurse leaders must collaborate and communicate with staff to come a successful resolution. The Alarming Culture of Bullying in Nursing Working in healthcare can be very stressful and often chaotic at times; especially for nurses. To make matters worse, nurses are often faced with bullying or lateral violence in their places of work. Bullying or lateral violence can be defined as intimidating, offensive, and insulting behavior that makes others fell belittled and humiliated, which ultimately undermines self-confidence and creates a stressful environment (Islam, Ahmed, & Ali, 2019). The most chronic issue in the health-care sector, specifically among nurses, is bullying (Islam, Ahmed, & Ali, 2019). Unfortunately, in the previous Emergency Department where I was employed bullying among nurses towards both recent graduates and experienced nurses new the unit faced bullying by other nurses. During orientation a senior nurse, who also was a preceptor, blatantly told the group of orientees that they were not allowed to eat where the veteran nurses ate. Also, the same preceptor and another senior nurse made it a point to tell orientees that they were not allowed to join in any outside activities that other staff were holding together due to being on orientation. MANAGING CONFLICT: COMBATING BULLYING IN NURSING 5 the newer nurses begin to feel and experience work related stress and anxiety over how they are being treated at work. The newer nurses at this time decide to speak up and trust that the unit manager will listen to their concerns and address the conflict appropriately. The conflict has not ended and continues to grow and now the issues are out in the open. Newer nurses are being berated and, in a sense, punished by senior nurses. There is no working together as a team to come to a positive resolution. Collaboration and Conflict Resolution In a survey of 1,428 nurses 97% reported bullying in their workplace as a common occurrence (Rainford, Wood, McMullen, & Philipsen, 2015). It was also reported that nearly one third of Emergency Room nurses have experienced bullying by a coworker in the last six months (Rainford et al., 2015). Not only does bullying in the workplace create stress and unhealthy relationships among staff but it can be costly to the organization and the quality of care for patients is at risk (Rainford et al., 2015). When nurses become bullied at work, they can leave their place of employment due to the negative environment. In turn the organization loses staff members, placing a larger work load on other nurses. With all the work that nurses are expected to carry out adding on more will be detrimental to the patients and staff (Rainford et al., 2015). A potential strategy to combat bullying in the workplace among nurses would be to meet with the nurse manager and bring it to their attention of the issue of unprofessional behavior. Having exact situations where staff were bullied to present would be beneficial as well. Creating a policy on professional behavior to implement in the department could help promote a more positive environment. With this having a zero-tolerance policy for bullying and unprofessional behavior would also be needed. Having a meeting with the manager as well as the unit-based council on coming up with ideas for team building exercises, respectful behavior at work, and MANAGING CONFLICT: COMBATING BULLYING IN NURSING 6 repercussions for bullying would also help influence the change in behaviors. By involving other staff with the manager, staff can feel valued and heard about their concerns. By working together and creating a team resolution for bullying can help build a more respectful work place. Leadership and collaboration among management and nurses play a strong role in creating and maintaining a healthy work environment. A study involving bullying among perioperative nurses suggested that nurse leaders and managers take advantage of opportunities to continue their education towards staff development (Spruce, 2019). From these learning opportunities nurse leaders can learn how to become more aware of unprofessionalism, addressing bullying, and learning how to educate staff on these issues in order to work together (Spruce, 2019). Additionally, nurse leaders should develop a zero-tolerance policy for unprofessional behavior as well as retaliation and implementing a code of conduct for all staff (Spruce, 2019). When nurse leaders maintain and uphold a zero tolerance for any type of bullying it can help increase team morale and decrease employee turnover and burnout (Spruce, 2019). Lastly, creating a multidisciplinary team, that consists of regular staff as well as nurse leaders or managers, to address bullying or any unprofessional behaviors can be helpful. This team will work together to create team building activities, developing interpersonal skills such as conflict resolution and collaborative practice so they can effectively respond and manage unprofessional behavior among staff (Spruce, 2019). With this team they can also develop a process for reporting bullying to make sure it is appropriately addressed (Spruce, 2019). By involving other staff in helping to facilitate this movement, it helps staff feel empowered and valuable to the organization (Finkelman, 2016). Nurse leaders are expected to create and maintain a healthy learning environment with positive attitudes and promoting good communication (Wahi & Iheduru-Anderson, 2017).A MANAGING CONFLICT: COMBATING BULLYING IN NURSING 7 four-hour seminar was developed titled, “Bullying Awareness” (Wahi & Iheduru-Anderson, 2017). This seminar focused on helping new nurses gain skills to prevent future issues with bullying or lateral violence in the workplace (Wahi & Iheduru-Anderson, 2017). The seminar also focused on using promoting empowerment and how to appropriately respond to bullying (Wahi & Iheduru-Anderson, 2017). In the beginning of the seminar participants were given questionnaires about prior knowledge of lateral violence (Wahi & Iheduru-Anderson, 2017). Next the participants were given cards that had common examples of lateral violence, responses to these particular situations, and expected behaviors of professionals when dealing with these situations (Wahi & Iheduru-Anderson, 2017). A group discussion was included addressing personal experiences with bullying and feelings around the situation (Wahi & Iheduru-Anderson, 2017). A role-playing exercise and simulation were also used during the program with a debriefing following the exercise on appropriate measures to take with preventing and managing bullying (Wahi & Iheduru-Anderson, 2017). Combining various aspects of each of the discussed strategies aimed at preventing and managing bullying in the workplace would be constructive and educational to staff. Conducting a team building exercise through an anti-bullying interactive seminar could help staff voice their concerns as well as learn how to handle these specific situations in a hands-on approach. Additionally, maintaining a zero-tolerance policy for lateral violence and upholding a code of conduct can help with preventing bullying and unprofessional behavior in the workplace. Conclusion Bullying and lateral violence are evident in the nursing workplace. Bullying is not only detrimental to the staff, team morale, employee retention but it can affect patient care as well. Nurse leaders must be determined to take a stand against bullying in the workplace. Nurse