Reflect on an experience in which you were directly involved or witnessed incivility in the workplace. Provide a brief synopsis of the situation. How did this make you feel? How did you respond? What were the consequences of this situation? Provide an example of how this negatively affected the work environment and outcomes. How could the situation have been prevented? Discuss strategies that would support a healthy work environment.

Reflect on an experience in which you were directly involved or witnessed incivility in the workplace. Provide a brief synopsis of the situation. How did this make you feel? How did you respond? What were the consequences of this situation? Provide an example of how this negatively affected the work environment and outcomes. How could the situation have been prevented? Discuss strategies that would support a healthy work environment.

Incivility defined as rude or unsociable speech or behavior. Incivility impact the work environment in a negative manner, it also affects the nursing professional. Unfortunately, I witness incivility quite often in the workplace, which I found out later it is considered lateral violence. According to AORN, lateral violence, which involves individuals openly or secretly directing their dissatisfaction with their work settings at co-workers of equal or lower levels within an organization, comes in many forms, e.g., bullying, gossip, criticism (Stanton, 2015). I recall an event where a telemetry nurse acknowledges a decline in respiratory status with her patient, and she initiated the medical response team. The critical care staff arrived to assess the situation. As they gathered information, they realized the patient is a do not resuscitate/do not intubate status, on maximum BiPAP settings, and with an active hospice consults for the patient. The medical response team showed behaviors of annoyance and rolling their eyes, making sarcastic and derogatory remarks. I felt bad for the nurse because I can tell her morale was affected. I apologized for my co-worker’s behavior and reassured her that she didn’t do anything wrong. Also, I made the medical response staff team aware of their behavior and education was provided to rid the nursing environment of this practice. I didn’t want this incident to stop the nurse from making decisions based on what’s best for the patients and to be reluctant to call the medical response team in the future. At times incivility is directed from someone in a position of power toward a coworker who has less power, and it can be devastating to the targeted person, unsafe for patients, and costly for the facility (McNamara, 2012). Workplace incivility leads to consequences for a facility such as increased employee turnover, losing employees, stress-related illness and damage to reputation and brand. This situation could have been prevented by continually educating the staff of lateral violence and providing work safe environment. Nurses must raise their awareness and the awareness of others about these behaviors; recognize behavior that undermines a culture of safety when it occurs; and become empowered to address, confront, and move beyond bullying (McNamara, 2012). Strategies that support a healthy work environment is always extending kindness and respect. When you extend kindness to your coworkers, you are modeling the way nurses should treat each other. True change can only begin after nurses collectively acknowledge the realities of lateral violence in their environment and nurse leaders implement policies addressing such violence (Stanton, 2015)

Reference

McNamara, S. A. (2012). Incivility in nursing: unsafe nurse, unsafe patients. AORN Journal, 95(4), 535-540. doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2012.01.020

Stanton, C. (2015). Action needed to stop lateral violence in the perioperative setting. AORN Journal, 101(5), P7-P9.

Before retirement, a nurse has been a victim of incivility in the workplace. Schilpzand, De Pater, and Erez stated that incivility is a low intensity behavior with the intent to harm. It may be brought forth in the workplace by fellow co-workers or managerial leaders. Examples may include talking down to others, stating demeaning remarks, and purposely ignoring someone (2016). Sadly, I have had a first-hand experience. A hospital that I had taken an assignment at was undergoing a 2-month renovation project which caused us to relocate to a new unit. We were understaffed without an aid and a secretary for a 36-bed intensive care unit. At the beginning of my shift, I had received an admission where my patient needed to be emergently intubated and his blood pressure wasn’t cooperating. I swiftly walked to the nurse’s station to find the phone number for the critical care doctor. During this time, the nurse manager rounded the corner and proceeded to pick up the call light and immediately hung up afterwards. She didn’t even answer the call light and in a very unpleasant tone asked me why I was not answering the call lights, but she left before I could answer. She made a scene for everyone to see. I didn’t have words because I was in a state of shock. After I settled the patient, I was furious. I couldn’t forget what had happened. I confronted her and asked her if there was a problem. I further discussed with her what my admission had entailed and wanted her opinion as to whether a call light should have been my priority at the time. She never apologized, but she stopped walking by my desk glaring at me. I have never been treated in this manner. Other nurses who had witnessed the scene came and apologized for the nurse manager’s reaction. I feel as though they lost respect for the nurse manager that day too. The morale of the ICU that day was destroyed. As much as I wanted to forget about the situation, I had a foul mood for the rest of the day. It affected how I performed patient care. The situation could have been prevented by the nurse manager stepping in and taking charge by answering call lights and phone calls while we settled our patients. She could have handled the situation in a more positive manner. Stanton describes strategies to decrease lateral violence such as developing a guideline to define behaviors that are inappropriate in the workplace and if unfollowed warrants punishment. Then educational programs are utilized to teach the staff the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. Expectations are set to mentor staff and develop unity in the workplace (2015). A healthy environment is vital to team morale.

Reference

Schilpzand, P., De Pater, I., & Erez, A. (n.d.). Workplace incivility: A review of the literature and agenda for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior,37, 57-88. doi:10.1002/job.1976

Stanton, C. (2015). Action needed to stop lateral violence in the perioperative setting. AORN Journal, 101(5), 7–9. doi:10.1016/S0001-2092(15)00320-8

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