Assessment Case Study | Nurse Bullying

Running head: ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
Incident Report
Nature/Type of Incident/Event: Nurse Bullying by a preceptor during clinical
placement
(Worker)
Description of the incident: I am a third-year undergraduate and is on clinical
placement at Elizabeth University Hospital Medical Ward. My preceptor was RN
Tim Coloton, who had instructor her for three days that involve nursing handover
procedure. In the process, I had committed two mistakes, which were highlighted
by Tim as constructive feedback; however, I felt that there were challenges in the
learning experience and was bullied. As a result, I completed an incident report,
submitted to the Nursing Unit Manager, John Matthew, and stated that I would not
continue the practice.
(Worker)
Brief description of injury/illness: There was no physical injury being caused;
however, I was mentally harassed that resulted in stress and she was anxious
during the clinical practice for a period of three days. It was reported that my
preceptor, Tim Coloton had bullied me during the time where I felt that she was
criticized, ignored and usage of the nursing term that was not known to me.
(Worker)
Did the person receive treatment following the injury/illness: There was no
treatment being given to the person after the occurrence of the incident. This is
because after filling the incident report and submission to the Nursing Unit
Manager, I left the workplace.
(Worker)
Person(s) who saw the Incident or first came to the scene: People who
witnessed the incident were:
 RN Jenny Lee
 RN Elizabeth McGregor
 EN Dorothy Mac
 Tim Coloton
(Worker)
Action taken / intended, if any, to prevent recurrence of the incident: After the
report, the immediate action that needs to be made by the Nursing Unit Manager
for prevention of recurrence of similar incident in the hospital was to understand
the situation from the perception of the undergraduate nurse as well as preceptor
to known the nature of bully. This will allow in assessing the situation and taking
appropriate action. The preceptor needs to understand that he or she needs to be
more understanding of the fact that the undergraduate is inexperience and require
more attention.
(Manager)

2ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
Nature/Type of Incident/Event: Nurse Bullying by a preceptor during clinical
placement
(Worker)
Describe any longer term action proposed to prevent a recurrence: The long-
term action that can be proposed in order to avoid a recurrence of such incident is
to plan a module that will systematically help the undergraduate to learn and
effectively adapt to the clinical environment.
(Manager)
Contributing factors: A lack of a planned and systematically learning
environment and experience of preceptor to handle a new and inexperienced
nurse are the contributing factors that lead to such incident with the hospital
setting.
Were issues related
to patient ID or
patient factors
(Manager)
Yes, one of the contributing factors has led to such an
incident was related to patient factor. On the third day,
Shannon was given to handle patient handover of Ross
Kantilla and Margarita Voulos.
Were issues related
to staffing levels,
training or
competency? (Manager)
Yes, there was an issue pertaining to staffing level,
training or competency. The competency level of the
preceptor, Tim Coloton, was questionable in this case.
Was equipment (or
use/lack of use) a
factor? (Manager)
There was no equipment related issue in this particular
case.
Was the
environment a
factor? (Manager)
From the case study, it can be observed that there was
no issue related to the environment in the hospital.
Were appropriate
policies or
procedures or lack
thereof a factor?
(Manager)
There was a lack of appropriate procedures in case of
training of the undergraduates during clinical practice that
led to the occurrence of such an incident.
Was the failure of a
safety mechanism or
barrier designed to
protect the
patient/staff a
factor? (Manager)
There were no issues related to the failure of a safety
mechanism or barrier designed in order to protect the
patient or staff.
Was communication
a factor? (Manager)
There was a significant issue related to communication in
the incident. In the first day, Tim had greeted Shannon
and provided her with all the necessary details required to
work; however, in the second shift, did not approach her.
On the second day, he apologized about not getting back.
She wanted to discuss the aspect of placement, scope of

3ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
Nature/Type of Incident/Event: Nurse Bullying by a preceptor during clinical
placement
(Worker)
practice and placement objectives; however, did not
receive any satisfactory response. When she was asked
a question to evaluate her nursing knowledge, she was
referred to as ‘walking textbook’ however, the facial
expression and tone reciprocated that it was not a
compliment. On the third day, her faults were highlighted,
and improvement strategies were advised. However,
Shannon felt that it was not constructive in nature and
was focused on demotivating her, thus, bullying her in the
workplace.
Signed: Shannon Doe
(Worker)
Date:
Signed: John Matthew
(Manager)
Date:

4ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
Essay on Nursing Case study
Introduction
The clinical learning environment is stated to be a complex social entity in any
healthcare setting (Flott & Linden, 2016). An appropriate context can be effective in
nature because it offers a learning process of nursing students, primarily,
undergraduates in the clinical placement. This process offers various benefits;
however, it is challenging, stressful and unpredictable in nature because of a number
of factors leading to a waste of time and efforts. Jamshidi et al. (2016) opined one of
the reasons that lead to challenges in the clinical environment is bullying. The aim of
the essay is to discuss the procedure for dealing the conflicts, recommendations to
promote resilience in the future placement of nurse and alignment of
recommendations with Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) standards
and principles and codes of nursing practices in relation to the case study.
Procedures for dealing with conflict incidents
As presented in the case study, the conflict incident took place in the case
study was bullying of the nurse, Shannon, by a registered nurse, Tim Coloton, during
clinical placement. The reason that had led to such an incident can be opined as a
lack of a systematic approach of providing training to the nurse. As per the opinion of
Rajeswaran (2016), the experience of clinical learning is positioned as the centre of
the nursing practice and thus, help in the development of professional nursing
attitudes. This is being widely used in case of learning and teaching of
undergraduate nursing students. Curl et al. (2016) opined that it empowers the
students for establishing competencies and socializing aspects in the profession.
Thus, a dynamic and complex learning atmosphere need to be provided. The conflict
resolution strategies that can be adopted in nursing to address varied kind of
conflicts and management of interpersonal conflicts are to develop of a learning
module that will stepwise incorporate all the essential lessons and practice on a
weekly basis. This will help in the methodical and organized learning environment for
the nurses to learn without suffering from any mental distress. The study of Sarafis et
al., (2016) states that the nursing practice is stressful in nature because it involves
high and complicated demand and the decreased in quality of practice may result in
death in severe cases (Johnson, 2018). Therefore, the inexperience nurses need to

5ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
be guided at each step; thus, a senior registered nurse needs to be assigned, and
during the training, the preceptor needs to devote maximum time in practice rather
than doing other assigned duties (Weurlander et al., 2018). Implementation of
professional models and increase in the impact on the prospect of management,
clinical education and use of strategies using positive and constructive teaching or
feedback method promotes in coping with issues related to inadequate educational
contexts. Kalyani et al., (2019) opined that this is important for professional and
personal development of the nursing students.
Analysis of case study
The provided case study is related to bullying of a nursing student during the
clinical placement where the preceptor had not appropriately offered information,
processes or procedures. It involves providing the clinical atmosphere as well as
demotivated in an indirect manner. For a period of three days, the nursing student
was subjected to mental distress in term of criticism and lack of attention that led to
the leaving of the nurse from the workplace. In addition to this, it was observed that
the preceptor was unable to resolve the queries of the student in relation to future
placement opportunities. This blurred the prospect for placement and objectives of
the student; as a result, concern related to future had arisen. The communicational
issue, lack of support and proper training session had directed to a situation where
the nurse student felt that she was being subjected to bullying as a result of which,
she filled up the incident report and decided to quit the job.
Recommendations linked with NMBA and medical code and standards to
mitigate the issue
According to Mather, Gale and Cummings (2017), it is important to reduce the
prevalence of recurrence of incident related to bullying of the nursing student during
clinical placement. This is because it will help in enhancing the training process as
well as improving the quality of life, thus, promoting the knowledge and skills of the
students. As per the study conducted by Weurlander et al., (2018), during this
period, students experience a wide of range of emotions, and negative emotions
hinder the effective learning atmosphere. Thus, it creates guilt, anxiety, sadness,
anger and shame that can be observed in the given case study. The
recommendations that can be applied in addressing the issue presented in the case

6ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
study need to align with NMBA and medical codes and principles
(Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2020). According to the Code of conduct for Nurses
as per NMBA, use of words and actions on repeated and intentional basis cause
risks and stress on the well-being (Lyons & Bliss, 2018). It is important for registered
nurses not to undertake such behavior. There are various kinds of harassment and
bullying which need to be recognized and eliminate in the practice. In case of such a
situation, the individual needs consult with Nurse and Midwifery Support and report
about the bullying (Nmsupport.org.au, 2017). It offers service to the nurses and
midwives on a free and confidential basis in Australia. According to the research
conducted by Thompson and Bryant (2019), the bullying of nurse-to-nurse in the
hospital setting is one of the contributing factors in creating the nursing shortage.
Both the victims and witnesses are found to suffer in a silent manner and thus, cause
confusion in how to react and what to do in such behavior. The management plays a
vital role in reducing the incident related to the bullying of nursing students as well as
other nurses working in the workplace (Birks, Budden, Biedermann Park &
Chapman, 2018). The implementation and adoption of strict monitoring procedure
and identification of bullying situation as well as reporting help in mitigating the issue
from the grassroots level. The issue of bullying in the nurse-to-nurse context have
various ill effects on the quality of care and the operation of the hospital. Therefore,
the management of Elizabeth University Hospital Medical Ward needs to take all
necessary measures to limit the recurrence of such incidents that took place with
Shannon Doe. Moreover, the context of training is critical in resolving the issue
related to the case study. Barton, Bruce and Schreiber (2018) stated that training is
one of the most important aspects in nursing because the nursing practice is
evolving and thus, upgrading the practice is critical. The trainer who is responsible
for training the student nurses needs to have a broader knowledge that supports the
trainers throughout the period of clinical placement (Thomas & Asselin, 2018). This
will help in improving the practice as well as widening the knowledge base and
motivating them to manage the stress level effectively. The student nurses need to
be aware of the fact that the nursing job is strenuous and involve various aspects
including both positive and negative emotion, thus, strategies on an individual level
to manage and handle them need to be adopted to effective work and provide the
highest quality of care to patients (Castronovo, Pullizzi & Evans, 2016).

7ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
Conclusion
From the essay, it can be inferred that bullying is one of the most common
nursing practice that occurs in the medical sector. There can be two types of
bullying, intentional where the nurse purposefully harasses the other person and
unintentional, where the act is not intended to hurt or harm. The bullying in the case
study is unintentional as the preceptor tried to help; however, due to lack of
professional or training module, failed to help. Thus, recommendations based on
NMBA and medical codes and standards were proposed to limit the recurrence of
such incidents in the healthcare sectors. Moreover, both professional and personal
development strategies need to be adopted that will help in gaining more knowledge
as well as promoting their confidence during the transition period from becoming a
registered nurse. This is more crucial because it is a critical stage where clinical
placement occurs and thus, reflecting more the future prospect than the present.

8ASSESSMENT: CASE STUDY
References
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