Nurses call for zero tolerance on work bullies

Cutbacks in the health service are fuelling workplace bullying, with more than half of nurses surveyed saying they had been bullied in the previous six months.

A study for the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) found 51.9% of the 2,442 nurses who responded to the survey had been the victim of bullying at least once — a 13.4% increase on the result when the survey was last carried out in 2010.

When asked to explain the background to their experience, nurses consistently reported that cutbacks and the resulting overcrowding and understaffing in hospitals and other healthcare settings had exacerbated stress levels and contributed to the bullying.

Phil Ní Sheaghdha, the INMO director of industrial relations, said the impact of losing 5,000 frontline workers and 2,000 public hospital beds since 2009 was clear.

“Cutbacks like these lead to a pressurised working environment and that’s a breeding ground for this kind of unfortunate behaviour,” she said.

The study, carried out by Prof Maura Sheehan from NUI Galway, found not only the incidence of bullying had increased, but also the frequency. In 2010, 1.7% said they were bullied almost daily, but that rose to 5.6% when the new survey was conducted in 2014.

“But only 11% of people make a formal complaint about it. They are afraid to report so there is this culture of fear,” said Prof Sheehan.

The kind of bullying suffered is mainly verbal, including repeatedly being shouted at, belittled, humiliated, and subjected to constant negativity and fault-finding, but victims also find themselves deliberately overburdened with unevenly distributed workloads, being excluded from tasks or being micromanaged.

Workers at all levels are responsible — including doctors, consultants, fellow nurses and administrators — and anyone can be a victim although older nurses, private sector nurses, non-union nurses and those on zero-hour contracts are slightly more at risk.

The impact of bullying is keenly felt as 26% of victims said they took more time off work than usual; 26% suffered increased stress; 23% felt reduced job satisfaction; and 22% considered leaving their job.

Most said the bullying did not affect their care of patients, but 16% said it affected their performance at work; 15% said it diminished their commitment to their employer; and 14% said they were actively looking for other work.

Phil Ní Sheaghdha said the INMO was assisting 100 members with formal bullying complaints at any time, but in addition a growing number were resorting to civil action through the courts.

She said the costs to the State in terms of absenteeism and compensation claims should make employers take bullying seriously if nothing else did.

“We need a culture change. We need employers to be very forthright in stating that they have a zero tolerance approach to this behaviour, that no matter how junior or senior the person is, it will not be tolerated.”

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