Bullying in workplaces comprises of deeds that directly bring forth emotional effects directed to a person over a given period. It is prevalent in the healthcare sector and acts as a menace to peer associations. It also impacts the rates of attrition and turnover in nursing (Meires, 2018). Bullying can be exhibited in the form of physical and verbal threats, social seclusion, aggressive behaviors, and suppression of applicable care information.
From the case study, Raymond was a specialist who undertook his assignments diligently with passion and professionalism. His exceptional skills made the hospital administration make him in charge whenever on duty. Raymond was well aware of his competence, however, the nurses found it rather disturbing. In countering this, the coworkers of Raymond secretly stage-managed a hit back action without his knowledge. The act hit hard on Raymond as a prank against him was organized, executed, and made known within the hospital from support staff to the entire nursing unit.
Organizational behavior encompasses molding the conduct of staff in an institution. The facility administration was not able to notice the growth of the bullying act to rectify and influence in line with organizational goals. Additionally, Raymond’s colleagues opted to teach him a lesson rather than raising the issue with the hospital management. Therefore, it has set a working environment that has not aligned all the staff on optimum service delivery.
Social capital and dominance theories can be used for a clear illustration of the behavior of Raymond’s workmates. Raymond can be described to be open to the other nurses, but upon sharing the condition of his wife, they took advantage of it and instigated a prank on him. Additionally, the coworkers used their big number in planning and executing the vengeful act of teaching Raymond a lesson.
In combatting bullying, it would be essential to train all personnel on the proper techniques of handling criticism and conflict, and institute a policy on zero-tolerance to workplace bullying. The biased nature of Raymond, as well as negative retorts, embarrassments, and rolling of eyes by colleagues as he was speaking, amounted to bullying. Some of the behavior in workplaces that amount to bullying include critics, pranksters, sabotage, cliques and gossips (Ball, 2020).
I experienced a similar scenario while in healthcare; whenever I undertook an activity, there was this colleague who always redid the task in his own way. I reported the issue to the management, there was a separation of duties, and thereafter a smooth workflow ensued.
Notably, bullying leads to concerns over the welfare of the patient, while the bullied staff tend to underperform due to anxiety. Consequently, there is lowered productivity, morale, and loss of talented professionals leading to a reduced turnover of the organization (Einarsen et al., 2020). The management contributes to the bullying actions through their overreliance on single staff for feedback at the expense of the majority, and not establishing and enforcing bullying policy.
In this case study, the eminent unethical concern is the revealing of the patient diagnosis information by Raymond to the other nurses without his wife’s approval. There is also privacy invasion and exposure by fellow staff dthe prank. The behavior of the supervisor and nurses is likely to coerce Raymond to leave the hospital. Consequently, there will be lower turnover as most patients who were used to Robert will not seek services from the facility.
The happening of the foregoing case study is an instance of the numerous bullying cases in the nursing profession. In my opinion, all professionals ought to co-exist harmoniously amongst themselves. They should also adopt amicable strategies in resolving conflicts between them. In addressing the problem, healthcare should intervene a crisis meeting for all staff and stakeholders where the management will outline the beneficial strategies for combatting the unethical code of conduct. All members should be involved in the formulation process, and their opinions will be put into consideration.
References
Ball, P. (2015). 10 Types of workplace bullying and how to stop it. Care@Work.
Einarsen, K., Nielsen, M., Hetland, J., Olsen, O., Zahlquist, L., & Mikkelsen, E. Koløen, J., & Einarsen, S. (2020). Outcomes of a proximal workplace intervention against workplace bullying and harassment: A protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial among Norwegian industrial workers. Frontiers in Psychology, 11.
Meires, J. (2018). Workplace incivility – The essentials: Here’s what you need to know about bullying in nursing. Urologic Nursing, 38(2), 95.