Addressing Bullying in Nursing Education

This assignment delves into the critical issue of bullying experienced by student nurses during clinical placements. It examines the roles and responsibilities of mentors in preventing and addressing such behavior. The analysis focuses on various models and strategies employed to resolve bullying situations effectively, emphasizing the importance of a supportive and safe learning environment for nursing students.

Running head: TRANSITION TO PRACTICE
Transition to practice
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Introduction:
The report highlights the public health issues of workplace bullying in clinical practice
and lack of understanding regarding the mentorship role in health care organization. This issue is
highlighted through the case scenario of Shannon, a nursing student on a clinical placement who
experience bullying and disrespectful behavior from his mentor, Morgan. The review of the case
study suggests that such incidents have become common in workplace and this is the main cause
of nursing staff shortage in clinical setting. The report set the scene for discussing the procedure
regarding dealing with such incidents by means of incident report about Shannon. Secondly, the
essay also critically analyzes the personal and organizational level actions that is needed to
improve mentoring experience in nursing practice and prevent victimization of nursing students.
Incident Report:
Nature or type of incident: Bullying, inappropriate behavior and poor clinical debriefing with
other workers at workplace
Description of the incident: Shannon Doe, a third year undergraduate nurse came to the Charles
Darwin University Hospital on clinical placement. On the first day, Shannon’s preceptor
Morgan Lane gives detail to Shannon regarding her work for the day and instructs her to review
the self-directed learning modules on WHS, infection control, mandatory reporting and
aggression management. Shannon did not contacted her on that day. On the second day, Morgan
makes fun at her which made Shannon embarrassed. Shannon gave answer to Morgan’s
questions, however the comment made by him was in the form of criticism. On the third day too,
when Shannon performed a CPR on a non-responsive patient with pneumonia, Morgan ask her

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just to complete the cycle. He does not contact her even during the clinical debriefing process.
The final day Shannon calls the Nursing Unit Manager to say that she is not coming as she feels
she been bullied.
Brief description of injury/illness: Shannon experienced negative experience at her clinical
placement due to bullying and criticism by nurse Shannon. Morgan did not invited her in the
clinical debriefing session after completing the CPR for the non-responsive patient.
Treatment following injury: Shannon was subjected to criticism and derogatory remarks by
Morgan on all four days of clinical placement. Following this incident, no actions were taken to
correct the actions. When the patient was non-responsive, Shannon commenced CPR on the
patient.
Person who saw the incident or came first to the scene: After feeling bullied, Shannon informed
about the incident only to the Nursing Unit Manager. While the nurse was conducting
resuscitation, Morgan first came to the scene.
Action taken to prevent recurrence of the incident: No action were taken to prevent recurrence of
the event.
Contributing factors:
Were the issues related to the patient ID or patient factors (Manager)? No
Were issues related to staffing levels, training or competency? (Manager) Yes
Was equipment (or use/lack of use) a factor? (Manager) No
Was the environment a factor? (Manager) No
Were appropriate policies or procedures or lack thereof a factor? (Manager) Yes

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Was the failure of a safety mechanism or barrier designed to protect the patient/staff a factor?
(Manager) NO
Was communication a factor? (Manager) Yes
Signed( Worker):
Date:
Signed (Manager):
Date:
Procedures dealing with the incidents:
Both informal and formal procedures exist to deal with bullying incidents in
health care organization. The informal procedure is a problem-solving approach where the main
aim is to assess the allegation and address the issues within a specific time frame. The time frame
may differ according to different organizational bullying prevention policy. The first step would
to get detailed incidents report and analyzes the specific issues reported. Secondly, it would be
necessary to evaluate whether the complaint comes under the definition of bullying or not. An
informative session between two parties can clarify regarding the acceptable interaction needed
between mentor and mentee (Birks et al., 2014). Hence, informal resolution occurs by clarifying
about bullying to the offender, getting the offender to accept that their behavior was
inappropriate, and they would not repeat the same procedure again. Counseling support and
awareness regarding the responsibility of a mentor for nursing students can also help in closing

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the case. The Nurse Unit Manager can also take similar action after receiving complaint from
Shannon.
In addition, the formal procedure is followed to deal with bullying incident in clinical
practice when issues cannot be resolved by the informal process. The first step in the formal
investigation process is to obtain written complaint from the person reharding allegation of
bullying against a person. The most important action is that the complainant must be ensure full
supporting during the investigation process. The next step is investigate about the complain in
accordance with the Bullying Prevention Policy. The next phase is to establish the facts by
meeting with both the offender and complainant. In case, the alleged behavior is identified in the
person, then taking disciplinary actions will be important (LaSala, Wilson & Sprunk, 2016).. In
case of Shannon, the inappropriate mentoring process in Morgan could have been eliminated by
means of education regarding behavior expected from mentors in health care practice. The most
crucial element would be teach communications while engaging in the mentoring job (Topa,
Guglielmi, & Depol, 2014).
Another relevant process to deal with bullying incidents in clinical placement, to take
immediate action to find out the cause of such incidents. This is necessary to prevent the
shortage of nurse and retain talented nurse in their job. The first action that can be taken in
respond to bullying at workplace is establish a culture of mentoring where all employees are
respected, open communication takes place between mentor-mentee and mentor spends enough
time with the mentor to support them in the learning process. Shannon fell prey to bullying and
disrespectful experience from her mentor, Morgan. This incident occurred because effective
mentoring culture was not present. Mentor often feel justified in their harsh treatment because
they feel they are not competent enough to be trusted. However, they fell to realize that nurse

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attain clinical knowledge in nursing schools, however they are not prepared to deal with the
realities of nursing. In such situation, mentors guide them to correct their action and take the
right step (Henderson & Eaton, 2013). Hence, emotional as well as transitional relationship
between mentor-nurse is necessary to develop the skills of nursing students and make them
confident in delivering advanced level care.
Critical analysis of the case study
The above incident of Shannon and Morgan is mainly a case of bullying and
inappropriate mentoring process in health care. According to the NMC Code of Conducts, the
supervisor or mentor of student nurse practitioner has the role of facilitating nursing students to
develop their competence and support them in learning (Casey & Clark, 2011). However, study
regarding relationship between nurse and mentors has showed that most of the nurse fins that
mentors spend less time with them or some of them even engage in bullying nursing students. In
such case, the most appropriate actions taken by the nurse is to leave their professional or clinical
placements. This further leads to nursing shortage (Frederick, 2014). Hence, effective mentor-
mentee relationship is crucial for positive employee retention and positive recruitment outcomes.
In the case of Shannon also, act of bullying was the main cause of her intention to leave the unit.
The case study of Shannon brings to the forefront the prevalence of bullying in clinical
practice and lack of awareness of key responsibility among the mentors. Shannon’s experience
on her clinical placement showed that her mentor was disrespectful towards her and he had no
commitment to provide positive learning experience to the student. As a nursing student, it is
very crucial for them to apply their clinical knowledge in real setting. However, as this is a
challenging process, the mentors holds the main responsibility to promote quality learning in

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practive setting and develop the competency of the nursing staff. However, Morgan did not
approached Shannon the whole day on her first day of shift after first meeting. Secondly, instead
of commending Shannon while she gave her correct answer to his question, he made fun of her
This also reflects that he was not committed to develop a positive learning environment. In
addition, he did not followed involved Shannon in debriefing sessions, which is seriously a
breach of his duties and key responsibility. The critical analysis of the case study suggests
prompt action is needed to address such incidence in clinical setting.
The first step in resolving bullying experience in nurse is to make all staffs realized the
impact of bullying and disrespectful behavior on both individual and organization. It has
emotional and physical health implications for the affected person and it proves detrimental for
organizations too. Such incidence hampers organization’s reputation, escalates errors as well as
lead to high turn over rate (Ariza-Montes et al., 2013). In case of the Charles Darwin University
Hospital, if the mentor Morgan continues with the same attitude, then it would lead to shortage
of nursing staffs and high turnover rate. One research study also suggest that staff shortage and
declining funds have also increased the likelihood of bullying. A study also showed that one-
third of nurse’s experience bullying in the workplace from their colleagues or mentors. Many
nurse also express fear in reporting about such incident and suffer silently (Shetgiri, Espelage, &
Carroll, 2015). . However, Shannon reported about it too.
The ARRCA resolution model can manage the incident of bullying of nursing students in
health care facilities. This model can be useful to manage situation when nurses like Shannon
report about bullying. It consists of the phase of acknowledgement, recording, referral,
conciliation and action and it promotes taking appropriate action in relation to the event. It
promotes information sharing in a controlled environment and enable nurse to identify their

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personal as well as colleague’s activity or mentors surrounding them (Birks et al., 2014). In the
context of Shannon, as main perpetrator of bullying was Morgan, so the final course of action to
address his behavior would be to clarify him regarding the competencies and outcome for
mentorship in nursing. He also needs to be educated about the essential attributes of a mentor
and key phase of mentor-nurse relationship. The first phase in the process of interacting and
working closely with each other, second phase is to promote development of clinical placement
skills in nurses and final phase is successful termination of the relationship (Ali & Panther,
2008). Hence, mentors must realize that once they take the mentoring role, they need to
consistently support nursing students who will be future nurses.
In case study of Sharon, it was also found that Morgan did not involved Shannon in
clinical debriefing. For a student, this is a derogatory act because clinical debriefing sessions
mostly occur in group setting to discuss and reflect about a clinical case. This method of
reflection and blame free dialogue helps in identifying mistakes, learning new skills ad
developing clinical evaluation skills. Hence, if Morgan had invited Shannon to this session, the
nurse could have learn what was wrong or right actions and this would have created a positive
mentoring environment (Dreifuerst 2015). In such case, Shannon would have never left her job
and she could have developed confidence in dealing with similar situations in the future. This
incident in the case study calls for stabilizing the nursing profession by encouraging mentors to
engage in positive mentoring process so that nurse love and respect their profession. Health care
organization also have the responsibility to train mentors and provide them with all resources and
equipment to engage in effective mentoring process. The mentoring culture can also be
established when mentors display authentic leadership skills and genuinely respect the talent of

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nursing students (Elcock & Sookhoo, 2017). A lot needs to be learnt about the mentoring process
to fight against bullying and stabilize the workforce.
Conclusion:
The essay summarized the procedures that can be taken to prevent and address bullying
incidence in workplace by means of reviewing the case study of Shannon and Morgan. The
critical analysis of the case presented the need to improve mentoring role as well as the
organizational process to establish a culture of mentoring in health care. With the application of
the suggested approach, the health care system can address staff shortage issues and also
maintain the requirement workplace health and safety by taking system disciplinary actions for
perpetrators of abuse and bullying.

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