Addressing the issue of workplace violence (WPV) is a significant concern for organizations. WPV of any form (verbal, physical, psychological) increases the chances that nurses will leave the profession permanently, resulting in nursing workforce retention challenges (Marshall  & Broome, 2017). Nurses must maintain environments that allow the profession to be virtuous, allowing for mutual respect, integrity, communication, caring, and benevolence (American Nurses Association (ANA), 2015). Workplace violence does not just include nurses or other healthcare professionals but also patients/ family members being uncivil.

As a new nurse, my preceptor was off the floor for a meeting. The charge nurse did not care for me, and she never had any problems showing it. With two open rooms and already taking care of a DKA patient and prepping another patient for surgery with low hemoglobin. The EMS radio called with a code blue and the eta was 5minutes. There were other rooms and nurses available to take the code, but she placed the patient in my room and offered no assistance, and within minutes of getting the code blue patient she placed yet another patient in the fourth room.

Feeling overwhelmed and very upset; why would she deliberately try to sabotage a new nurse. My preceptor, nurse manager, and I confronted her and asked why she would intentionally risk patient safety and stack patients on one nurse. Her response was “No one told her to stay in the ED, who is she to try to change the way we do things here, I do not agree with having graduate nurses in the ED, she would be better off on one of the inpatient units.”

Workforce resources are competing for needs maintaining and implementing policies to combat such behaviors. The consequences of this situation impacted my other three patients and delayed care; the whole situation created a negative attitude towards the rest of the nursing staff, and trusting anyone and asking for help when my preceptor was not available was out of the question. I felt like this situation needed to happen so that management could see the negative culture/attitudes within the department.

With the looming nursing shortage, leadership may tolerate or entirely ignore WPV.  The charge nurse continued to bully other nurses, and the older nurses felt like, the newer nurses were coming in and changing their department. While professional standards appear specific to WPV, an atmosphere of support is essential to reducing the stigma and reoccurrence often associated with those who are victims of bullying. Standards of professional behavior must be developed and implemented with consistent use across all departments (Fink-Samnick,2015).

American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nursing with interpretive statements. Silver Springs, MD: Author. Retrieved from: https://www.nursingworld.org/coe-view-only

Fink-Samnick, E. (2015). The New Age of Bullying and Violence in Health Care. Professional Case Management,20(4), 165-174. doi:10.1097/ncm.0000000000000099

Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.