338 MEDSURG Incident of Abuse in The Workplace

338 MEDSURG Incident of Abuse in The Workplace

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338 MEDSURG Incident of Abuse in The Workplace

338 MEDSURG Nursing—November/December 2010—Vol. 19/No. 6

at least one incident of abuse in the workplace. They indicated the behavior generally was accepted as the norm on the units where these nurses worked, and they did not feel empowered to stop this cyclic abuse. John described a situation when, as a new nurse, he was work- ing in an intensive care setting. During one of his routine trips to the medication room, a male col- league locked the door and began to shout to others, “The faggot is in the med room, come and get him!” John reported this type of behavior was viewed as a hazing ritual that continued for approximately 1 year after that first incident. This hazing stopped for one individual when a new nurse would join the unit, as the bully could focus on someone new. John talked about how the hazing just made him “sad” and over time “worn down.” He saw similar behavior with slight varia- tions repeated with all new RNs, with no one ever asking for it to stop. John indicated the manager was aware of the situation and in his opinion “turned a blind eye.” John left nursing about 1 year after being locked in the medication room, but says he felt the purpose of this behavior was to “toughen up” and “make better” the new nurse. While some nurses may have “toughened up,” John left nursing after slightly less than 2 years of practice, tired and disappointed in his chosen profession.

Participants also described sit- uations of sexual harassment or hostile behavior from physicians. Melanie was a new RN working in labor and delivery when a physi- cian began throwing medications and fluids at her while she was in a patient’s room. When she reported the incident to the charge nurse, Melanie was asked, “What did you do to start it?” Melanie reported feeling abandoned rather than sup- ported by her RN colleagues. She described the situation as “oppres- sive…you would get caught by these (physicians)…and it was sup- posed to be ok.” What bothered Melanie more than the physical confrontation by the physician was the lack of perceived support from fellow nurses. She indicated it seemed as if she was working in a profession wherein nurses were not

willing or able to support one another. Melanie felt powerless and abandoned at work.

Alice, another participant, recalled a similar situation when she was working in a small, rural hospital. Some of the physicians commonly and purposefully intimi- dated nurses by making sexual innuendos:

I wouldn’t call it sexual harass- ment…It was just part and parcel with what you dealt with when we were…in the hospital. But it hap- pened, and it was accepted, and essentially word got around that if you make rounds with doctor so and so [you should] make sure you are on the opposite side of the bed. You just sort of, you dealt with it.

In both these cases, the nurses reported a perceived acceptance of this behavior by administrators. This acceptance was seen as even more debilitating than the harass- ment itself. The overwhelming lack of support felt by all the nurses in many different situations ultimately led to their decisions to leave clini- cal practice.

All RNs described situations in which managers simply did not address inappropriate behavior. This indifference and lack of sup- port allowed a culture of horizontal hostility (HH) and bullying in the workplace. Many of these incidents occurred when the study partici- pant was a new nurse, yet they were the reasons nurses cited for leaving clinical practice even years later. For many, this type of work environment was synonymous with clinical nursing and became the rea- son they would not return to clini- cal nursing practice in the future.

Emotional Distress Related to Patient Care

Overly aggressive treatment, lack of collaboration between physicians and staff, and lack of respect for patient and family wish- es caused recurrent emotional dis- tress among the interviewees. RNs reported situations in which hero- ics were performed “just as learning instruments,” and families were asked to leave the room during pro- cedures so they would not stop in- progress treatments that may have violated a patient’s wishes at end of life. Nurses talked about going

home and crying, not only about the loss of their patients but also the loss of autonomy and respect as health care professionals in the institutions in which they worked. More importantly, they perceived a lack of support and understanding by managers and other RNs regard- ing these issues.

These actions caused many participants to question their pro- fessional roles. Rose talked about her work in the neonatal intensive care unit. Babies were sicker each passing year. Previously, they would have died almost immediate- ly, but now were kept alive through advances in medical technology. Many times Rose believed this delivery of care was pointless.

We were playing God…keeping babies alive…causing undue hope for the parents, and all the while pre- tending like it was ok, when we knew, I knew, it wasn’t…yet no one else seemed to agree with me.

As Rose continued to watch (and participate in) what she con- sidered to be futile treatment, she began to perceive her situation as hopeless and her role as helpless.

Almost every nurse talked about the distress caused by inap- propriate use of advancing tech- nologies. Many believed prolonging life was prolonging suffering, and it did not represent the type of nurs- ing they wanted to practice. None indicated a solution existed to deal with the perceived ethical prob- lems. Many relayed stories of fre- quently crying at or about work. Nurses reported their feelings of hopelessness and emotional dis- tress were associated with calling in sick, searching for another position, or considering leaving clinical nurs- ing altogether. As Ruth said,

I remember near the end…I was crying, crying almost every day, even at work, and I turned to a co-worker and said, ‘I just don’t think it should be like this.’ I mean, what kind of job do you have where you cry every day? That is when I knew, when I had to look for another job.

Ruth’s story of crying epito- mizes the experiences of many par- ticipants. The emotional burdens of nursing increased to the point that the only apparent solution was to leave clinical practice. For these nurses, a pattern first developed of

MEDSURG Nursing—November/December 2010—Vol. 19/No. 6 339

missing work, and then ultimately tendering their resignations when the stressors of providing care became too much.

Fatigue and Exhaustion Working in an unfriendly work-

place and being exposed to emo- tionally distressing dilemmas on a frequent basis was followed typical- ly by insurmountable fatigue and exhaustion. Alice describes being “bone tired” the 6 months before deciding to quit. Olivia said she sometimes felt “too tired to go on” and “tired all the time.” Melanie stated she “bordered on burnout, all because I cared.” Increased absenteeism was common during this time as participants believed they simply “couldn’t do one more thing.” Others noted they purpose- fully would not answer the tele- phone for fear of being called into work. Alice stated,

You are always on. Thinking and working. And it is not that you are always on when you are there….You are on when you get home. It takes hours, sometimes days, to relax after a particularly bad day…I am para- noid about phone calls these days. I hated to answer the phone to say no, to not go in, but I hated to say yes, knowing what that phone call would mean.

Alice’s fear of phone calls sim- ply underscored her overwhelming fatigue from constantly working, and feeling it was never enough. Knowing a telephone call could mean she would be asked to work on a non-scheduled day increased her inability to rest on her days off, contributing even further to her fatigue. When Alice went to work after being called in on her day off, she reported those days were always harder and more demand- ing because, inevitably, others were not at work as scheduled, or the patient census suddenly had taken a sharp increase. These were the days Alice said she simply “couldn’t do one more thing.” She reported being both emotionally and physi- cally drained during these times, and her recovery from these inci- dents took longer each time they occurred.

Melanie’s story supported Alice’s descriptions:

If you are doing a good job, it is

mentally as well as physically exhausting, demanding… you are going to burn out, as no one supports you, stands by you…you are always working, always on your feet, always thinking. It doesn’t end…ever…your brain is always in overtime.

Melanie, like many of the RNs, felt she was always “on,” never hav- ing time to recuperate from the daily stressors of working as a bed- side clinician.

Haley described the fatigue and exhaustion best when she noted nursing is a profession only another nurse understands. She said nurs- ing simply cannot compare to other professions because, “After all, who is going to die if the weather man tells you it isn’t going to rain and it does?” One interpretation of this is that the constant vigilance required in clinical nursing frequently is overlooked and under recognized, providing holistic patient care is emotionally and physically de – manding, and all demands increase exponentially when a lack of cama- raderie exists. Alternatively, Haley felt totally responsible for her clients. She believed no one under- stood what she was experiencing; she was all alone. Many partici- pants said nursing was simply “too much,” indicating the levels of stress and exhaustion ultimately drove them from clinical practice. Scholars have recognized emotion- al or mental fatigue, coupled with physical fatigue, may be represen- tative of the syndrome of burnout (Maslach, 1982; Trossman, 2007; Vahey, Aiken, Sloane, Clarke, & Vargas, 2004).

Discussion Study participants believed

they had to leave clinical nursing practice; this was the only recourse for them in basically untenable situ- ations. Most participants felt a lack of support in the workplace at many levels, and these RNs were most troubled when the lack of sup- port arose from their peers. This also extended vertically to feelings that management and physicians did not support the RN in clinical practice.

For many years, HH and moral distress have been identified as per- vasive problems that may lead to job dissatisfaction, nurse burnout,

and nursing attrition (Longo & Sherman, 2007; Murrells, Robinson, & Griffiths, 2008). Despite recogni- tion of HH in the nursing workplace, the cycle of abuse has led some per- sons to leave a profession about which they were once excited. The moral dilemmas and conflicts encountered by many nurses have left such indelible marks on their perceptions of nursing that they hesitated to return to clinical nurs- ing. Study participants originally believed they could make a valu- able contribution through clinical nursing, yet they believed they never could return to nursing prac- tice in that context. All the nurses expressed guilt about not working clinically, but none were willing to return to clinical practice.

A lack of support was docu- mented initially by Kramer (1974) as a primary reason for nurses to leave professional practice. Lack of support, HH, and moral distress all have been documented subse- quently as associated with job dis- satisfaction and nursing attrition (Longo & Sherman, 2007; Patrick, 2000; Vahey et al., 2004; Young, Stuenkel, & Bawel-Brinkley, 2008). The findings from the current study also suggest retention efforts should focus on work environ- ments, including recognizing and then eliminating HH and vertical indifference. The combination of these two elements ultimately led each interviewee to leave clinical nursing.

Limitations of the study include a relatively small sample size. Although participants reported dif- fering levels of abuse, it is unknown if this finding would be replicated on a larger scale. The reason some RNs consider abuse acceptable in clinical practice also is unclear. Further research is needed to explore the power differential among RNs, its relation to percep- tions of HH and vertical indiffer- ence, and its ultimate impact on nursing turnover or intent. No other research has explored RNs’ potential vulnerability or resiliency to perceptions of HH and vertical indifference. Full understanding of reasons for RNs’ departure from clinical nursing will enable nurse managers to implement effective strategies to retain current staff.

340 MEDSURG Nursing—November/December 2010—Vol. 19/No. 6

Nursing Implications With increasing medical tech-

nology demands, increased acuity of patients, and the complex phe- nomena of the nursing shortage, retaining experienced nursing staff at the bedside is of utmost impor- tance (Aiken et al, 2002). Medical- surgical nurses may benefit from a recognition that perceptions of the workplace appear to cause some RNs to leave nursing. Recognizing when colleagues appear to be dis- tressed, frustrated, or socially iso- lated, especially as new RNs, may help retain future nurses. Effective mentoring programs that fully sup- port the transition into nursing practice from both professional and social development perspectives may ease this transition, and assist in long-term retention strategies. Developing cultures that embrace diversity, have a zero tolerance pol- icy for HH, and provide support net- works for nurses experiencing emo- tional distress may enhance reten- tion of the nurse in clinical practice.

This study provides broad con- ceptualizations of why nurses leave clinical practice. Exploring these concepts in more detail is necessary and will benefit every nurse, every patient, and every family, and ultimately improve quality of care.

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Murrells, T., Robinson, S., & Griffiths, P. (2008). Job satisfaction trends during nurses’ early career. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472- 6955/7/7

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Vahey, D.C., Aiken, L.H., Sloane, D.M., Clarke, S.P., Vargas, S. (2004). Nurse burnout and patients satisfaction. Retrieved from http://www.protectmasspatients.org/docs /Nurse%20Burnout%20and%20Pt%20S atisfaction%20pdf.pdf

Young, M., Stuenkel, D.L., & Bawel-Brinkley, K. (2008). Strategies for easing the role transformation of graduate nurses. Journal for nurses in staff development, 24(3), 105-110.

Additional Readings Buchan, J. (2006). Evidence of nursing short-

ages or a shortage of evidence? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 56(5), 457-458.

Duffield, C., Pallas, L.O., Aitken, L.M., Roche, M., & Merrick, E.T. (2006). Recruitment of nurses working outside nursing. Journal of Nursing Administration, 36(2), 58-62.

Gutierrez, K.M. (2005). Critical care nurses’ perceptions of and responses to moral distress. Dimensions in Critical Care Nursing, 24(5), 229-241.

Kovner, C.T., Brewer, C.S., Fairchild, S., Poornima, S., Kim, H., & Djukic, M. (2007). Newly licensed RNs’ characteris- tics, work attitudes, and intentions to work. American Journal of Nursing, 107(9), 58-70.

338 MEDSURG Incident of Abuse in The Workplace

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