638 December 2012 Volume 16, Number 6 Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing
Stopping the Culture of Workplace Incivility in Nursing
Professional Issues Guadalupe Palos, RN, LMSW, DrPHAssociate Editor
Rachele E. Khadjehturian, RN, MSN, FNP-BC
Workplace incivility (WI) continues to hamper professional nursing practice, patient care, and the health of nurses who encounter this phenomenon in their workplace. This article provides an exemplar of WI experienced by a new nurse when a more seasoned nurse uses humiliation, intimidation, and angry verbal abuse to accuse the novice nurse in the presence of coworkers and patients that she failed to provide essential nursing care to a challenging patient. Nurses are reminded that open communication among coworkers will help minimize the occurrence of WI, encourage a supportive milieu in the unit, and ensure the safety of patients, family, and staff.
Rachele E. Khadjehturian, RN, MSN, FNP-BC, is the program director of the New Graduate Nurse Residency Program at New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell in New York, NY. The author takes full responsibility for the content of the article. The author did not receive honoraria for this work. No financial relationships relevant to the content of this article have been disclosed by the author or editorial staff. Khadjehturian can be reached at [email protected], with copy to editor at [email protected].
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1188/12.CJON.638-639
N urse-to-nurse workplace incivility (WI) continues to hamper profes- sional nursing practice, patient
care, and the overall health of nurses who encounter this phenomenon in their workplace. The literature presents other terms used to describe this phenomenon, including horizontal abuse, bullying, vertical abuse, and nurses eating their young (Ceravolo, Schwartz, Foltz-Ramos, & Castner, 2012; Embree & White, 2010; Farrell & Shafiei, 2012; Hutchinson, Vick- ers, Wilkes, & Jackson, 2010; Sheridan- Leos, 2008). In addition, strong evidence exists demonstrating WI contributes to increased turnover rates, diminished job satisfaction, and decreased patient safety because of poor communication among workers (Center for American Nurses, 2008; Johnson & Rea, 2009; Joint Com- mission, 2008; Sheridan-Leos, 2008). One study reported that nursing units normalized WI when the supervisor was the source of the abuse (Hutchinson et al., 2010). Notably, in a study conducted by Ceravolo et al. (2012), nurses in units that normalized WI often were not
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