Introduction
Incivility is the disruptive factor that does not allow nurses to perform their duties at work at their full potential. A toxic atmosphere prevents them from developing their skills, providing patients with high-quality services, and divides the team into opposite groups that cannot work with each other. This paper shows that there are cases of incivility in the relationships between nurses and in the communication with patients and their families. This investigation focuses on the issues of incivility, the importance of this topic to nursing, ways to create a healthy environment, and practical application of the strategies to eliminate the cases of incivility at the workplace. It is possible to hypothesize that cultivating a healthy work environment is the only way to eradicate incivility in communication.
Issue of Incivility
The notion of incivility describes rude and aggressive behavior and does not correspond to the norms of politeness. It can happen deliberately and unintentionally, but incivility does not allow people to interact adequately (Mudallal, Othman, & Hassan, 2017). For instance, examples of incivility include insulting, aggressive attitude toward another person, rudeness, devaluation, humiliation, and disregarding another person’s work results.
Importance to Nursing
Incivility in nursing influences individuals, microsystem work environments, and the the profession of nursing in general. Nurses cannot communicate with their coworkers and patients who show incivility, leading to conflict in interpersonal relationships (Asghari et al., 2017).Teamwork is negatively affected by disputes between nurses, and conflicts prevent them from providing patients with healthcare services on the desired level (Leong et al., 2017). Moreover, the profession of the nurse has become less prestigious because people know that they will not be respected by others in the workplace (Mudallal, Othman, & Hassan, 2017). These details make the ways of addressing incivility vital to nursing.
Storytelling
A time in my nursing practice where I experienced incivility was about a year ago when I took a new position working the night shift in the Emergency Department of a smaller facility. After a short time working there, I noticed a big difference between the nurses working the day shift and those working the night shift. The day shift nurses have at least 15 to 20 years of work experience and, for the most part, were educated in associate degree programs. The nurses on the night shift had less than five years of experience and were mainly BSN-prepared. I began to hear negative remarks from the day shift nurses about those of us with “B— S—” degrees and our inexperience. When addressing day nurses for advice, I found that they rudely told us to surf the internet or that we should have studied better and not have played truant. They often talked and said pretty degrading things about the night shift group.
The impact on the individuals involved in this conflict was negative both from the short-term and long-term perspectives. First, it distracts all participants of the situation from their responsibilities at the workplace, which is potentially harmful to patients and endangers their health. Second, it leads to the formation of a toxic work environment that divides the team of healthcare professionals and does not allow them to work as a unified group. The emphasis on the differences between the nurses from the day and the night shifts creates two opposite groups, and one of these groups regards itself as superior to another. It paralyzes the team’s work, making the nurses oppose each other even in minor and insignificant work-related questions. For example, nurses from the day shift might disagree to work in one team with nurses from the night shift, leading to problems in the critical emergency.
Creating a Healthy Work Environment
The steps that could have been taken to prevent this situation from happening should be entrenched in collaboration and mutual respect of coworkers for one another. Specific steps could have been taken by the head of the department, like instituting conferences or work groups for day and night nurses where they would work all together over the same fascinating case or discuss issues of concern for the nursing profession. Such collective work would alleviate nurses’ negative feelings toward each other and may result in productive insights into the nursing profession.
Therefore, introducing team projects is the first strategic step to creating a healthy work environment. The investigation shows that collective tasks show the employees that they have more in common than they used to think before, and their opposition is not rationally justified (Hammer et al., 2021). In addition, when an everyday activity unites the members of one team, they focus on achieving the goal instead of opposing each other in disputes. It is vital to make teamwork an integral part of the regular practice at the workplace because it prevents people from creating small informal teams that are united by the feeling of their superiority (Hammer et al., 2021). In other words, collective work on team projects allows leaders to prevent counter-productive behavior among nurses.
The second step to achieving good results in teamwork is introducing constant supervision of the nurses and control of their polite communication. A person should be responsible for supporting a positive environment in the healthcare institution, and nurses should know whom they can ask for help in a critical situation (Asghari et al., 2017). It is essential to determine the leader whose responsibility is to protect the vulnerable categories of the employees.
The third step in creating a positive supporting environment is introducing a transparent system of fines and bonuses for the behavior of nurses. Those nurses who show a respectful attitude toward their coworkers and avoid conflicts in the workplace should receive financial compensation for their ability to support the friendly atmosphere in the team. On the contrary, according to their coworkers’ feedback, those nurses whose behavior is toxic and impolite should receive fines for their conduct (Mudallal, Othman, & Hassan, 2017). It is possible to assume that financial restrictions for incentive behavior would minimize or eliminate communication problems between team members.
Practice Application
As a family nurse practitioner, I find respectful communication the basis of practical work. It is impossible to find a connection with the patient and their family without mutual politeness. Though, the experience shows that other people might not share my views on the unacceptability of incivility. It is easier to solve conflicts with coworkers if someone is impolite because there is a code of behavior at the workplace and open aggression is rare. Other nurses understand that they cannot cross certain lines in their behavior even when they show signs of incivility (Asghari et al., 2017). Communication with the patient and their family is different because they are not regulated by the professional code of ethics and are not afraid of possible fines for rude behavior.
The first strategy that might help in coping with incivility as the family nurse practitioner is remaining calm in all critical situations. Even though it is not right to disregard the conditions when patients are aggressive towards nurses, it is necessary to stay polite. In this case, a nurse should outsource help and use formal ways of influencing the impolite patient (Leong et al., 2017). The second strategy is encouraging patients and their families to provide timely feedback on their healthcare services (Leong et al., 2017). The chances that their disrespect results from the long-term neglect of their needs are high, and the family nurse practitioner should pay attention to it.
Conclusion
Incivility is a severe problem in the work environment that leads to such adverse outcomes as the confrontation of team members and toxic relationships at the workplace that do not allow the employees to develop their potential and distracts people from their professional tasks. It is hazardous in healthcare because the professional nurse is responsible for the well-being of patients and diverting their attention from responsibilities might lead to medical errors and maltreatment of ill people. For this reason, it is especially vital to create a supportive and respectful environment in healthcare.
I plan to promote these principles in my nursing practice to create supporting environment at the workplace. I honestly believe that an environment of mutual respect can diminish incivility through building relationships of trust and companionship, much needed in the medical setting. Indeed, when bullies receive respectful and civil answers to their rudeness, they may likely be ashamed of themselves and begin to behave differently. When the atmosphere of respect and collaboration is maintained throughout the organization, it is difficult for a disrupter to engage in incivilities since such behavior is unlikely to find support on the part of other members of the group.
References
Asghari, E., Abdollahzadeh, F., Ebrahimi, H., Rahmani, A., & Vahidi, M. (2017). How to prevent workplace incivility?: Nurses’ perspective. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 22(2), 157. Web.
Hammer, L. B., Lee, J. D., Mohr, C. D., & Allen, S. J. (2021). “Anger and the role of supervisors at work.” In A. B. Adler & D. Forbes (Eds.), Anger at work: Prevention, intervention, and treatment in high-risk occupations (pp. 141–172). American Psychological Association.
Leong, F. T. L., Eggerth, D. E., Chang, C.-H. (Daisy), Flynn, M. A., Ford, J. K., & Martinez, R. O. (2017). Occupational health disparities: Improving the well-being of ethnic and racial minority workers. American Psychological Association.
Mudallal, R. H., Othman, W. M., & Hassan, N. F. A. (2017). Nurses’ burnout: The influence of leader empowering behaviors, work conditions, and demographic traits. Inquiry, 54, 1–10. Web.