Nursing

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Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal

Nurse bullying is a major problem across the world, and it’s one that I’m working to address. In a previous assessment, an interview with a registered nurse revealed the importance of nurse bullying and how it can harm a person’s self-esteem, patient care, and career. Nurse bullying leads to high nurse turnover, safety concerns, and financial troubles for the facility.

Objective

The goal is to form an interdisciplinary team that will raise awareness of an issue, provide ongoing education, and give confidence to victims to speak up. Establish a zero-tolerance policy for nurse bullying while adhering to the facility’s principles.

Questions and Predictions

  1. What is the definition of nurse bullying?
  2. “Nurse bullying, also known as horizontal hostility, relational aggression, and lateral violence, is defined by the American Nurses Association as repeated, unwanted harmful actions intended to humiliate, offend, and cause distress in the recipient, and is a very serious issue that threatens patient safety, RN safety, and the nursing profession as a whole, according to the organization” (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019). There are many different examples of bullying, but overall can be categorized as overt or covert behaviors. “Overt bullying is more obvious, including techniques like name-calling, micromanaging, and threats.” (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019).
  3. Covert bullying, on the other hand, is more passive-aggressive including techniques like withholding information, gossiping, and unfair assignments (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019).
  4. What is the impact of nurse bullying on persons and organizations?
  5. Staff turnover percentages- According to Edmonson & Zelonka (2019), 78% of nursing students are bullied before graduating from school or witness nurse-on-nurse bullying during clinical rotations, and 60% of nurses leave their first job because of the treatment they receive (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019).
  6. Physical and mental health- As mentioned by Sauer & McCoy (2017), Bullying causes significant amounts of stress in victims, which can lead to stress-related sickness and injury. Negative experiences or pressures can be extremely harmful to one’s physical and mental health. “Bullying victims are more likely to suffer from musculoskeletal disorders, sleep disruptions, headaches, high blood pressure, and gastrointestinal upset” (Sauer & McCoy, 2017). Psychosomatic symptoms can occur leading to frequent absences, and fear of going to work (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019).
  7. Budgets for hospitals- “The typical cost of turnover in 2018 for a bedside RN ranged from $38,000 to $61,100, resulting in a $4.4 million to $7 million loss for the average hospital. The typical hospital will spend—or save—an additional $337 500 for each 10% change in RN turnover” (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019).

 

  1. What is the impact of nurse bullying on patient care and safety?
  2. Patient safety may be jeopardized because a nurse who is being bullied may be afraid to ask questions. There is a lack of trust, and the nurse may not want to appear incompetent. A rookie nurse, for example, may have a question about medicine dosage. Instead of asking a question to avoid being bullied, the nurse may simply provide the drug, which may be in the incorrect dosage.
  3. Mental health as mentioned can be affected greatly by bullying behavior. As a result of the nurse’s health worries and psychosomatic symptoms, call-outs may occur. This could result in dangerous nurse-to-patient ratios, compromising acceptable patient care.

Change Theories and Leadership Strategies

Andrews and Reinholz in their article mentioned that a theory of change can provide detailed interventions that can be utilized to reach long-term goals. A process called backwards mapping will be done after looking into a situation. This process focuses first on the end result and then working backwards to explain how you get to the end result. The long-term objective will only be accomplished when a set of intermediate- and short-term outcomes—known as preconditions—have been met (Reinholz & Andrews, 2020). This is a great team approach for an interdisciplinary result. Bullying requires a team approach, and this theory would help get everyone involved. Setting specific goals for each area will encourage employees to speak up while working toward a common goal.

Transformational leadership is the most suited leadership strategy for this problem. Ritcher et al (2016) mentioned Managers who utilize transformational leadership does not have to focus on facilitating the introduction of a certain practice at their workplace; they can focus on other goals and still be seen as transformational leaders by their subordinates (Richter et al., 2015).

Team Collaboration Strategy

Utilizing the zero-tolerance policy for nurse bullying is the best implementation for everyone involved. An orientation for experienced personnel and new hires, given by team leaders and a certified psychologist, should be organized. Extra material can be sent to employees in the form of a PowerPoint or an email that they can refer to at their leisure. A quiz might also be offered to all employees to confirm their understanding during the orientation. The results of completion can be emailed directly to the unit manager once the staff member passes the examination. Quiz results will then be sent to the unit manager.

  • Project Manager A will make a PowerPoint presentation to educate all employees against nurse bullying.
  • Project Manager B will make the quiz based on the presentation for confirming the knowledge.
  • Project Manager C will collaborate with managers and leaders to make sure employees’ complete orientation and quizzes.
  • Leaders will show the staff appropriate behaviors and will identify bullying behaviors with quick responses
  • Managers of the unit will implement the zero-tolerance policy

 

The transformational leadership strategy will help bring the staff together to work at decreasing nurse bullying and create a safe environment for both nurses and patients.

Required Organizational Resources

As seen above, creating this proposal will require a collaborative effort. If done practically, the costs of putting this concept into effect can be low. To avoid meeting in person, the orientation, presentation, and quizzes can all be completed online. This saves money on transportation, paperwork, and other expenses. The virtual presentation can be recorded so that employees can see it whenever they want.

The cost ramifications of nursing turnover, as noted above, are reason enough to invest a little amount in anti-bullying education. In the end, allowing nurse bullying to go unchecked in hospitals would be significantly more expensive than this approach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Edmonson, C., & Zelonka, C. (2019). Our own worst enemies. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 43(3), 274–279. https://doi.org/10.1097/naq.0000000000000353

Reinholz, D. L., & Andrews, T. C. (2020). Change theory and theory of change: What’s The difference anyway? International Journal of STEM Education, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-0202-3

Richter, A., von Thiele Schwarz, U., Lornudd, C., Lundmark, R., Mosson, R., & Hasson, H. (2015). ILead—a transformational leadership intervention to train healthcare managers’ implementation leadership. Implementation Science, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-016-0475-6

Sauer, P. A., & McCoy, T. P. (2016). Nurse bullying: Impact on nurses’ health. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 39(12), 1533–1546. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945916681278

Skipwith, M. (2022). Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal [Unpublished assignment submitted for NHS-FPX4010]- Leading in Interprofessional Practice. Capella University