Bullying in nursing: when ‘banter’ is no laughing matter
Posted 27 February 2024 - 13:43
If behaviour intimidates, belittles or offends it should not be happening – and should not be tolerated by healthcare managers and employers
Anyone who’s ever been bullied – and that will include many nurses – will have felt the experience deeply, as a highly personal attack.
But what is bullying, which affects one in five healthcare staff each year, according to the annual NHS staff survey?
Bullying behaviour is a spectrum from subtle acts to explicit threats
There is no legal definition but the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), which provides advice on workplace rights and helps to resolve disputes, describes bullying as unwanted behaviour by a person or group that is offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting. It can range from subtle acts such as excluding someone from an event to explicit insults or threats made towards a colleague.
Sometimes people don’t realise they’re doing it – or it’s seen as a trait of the individual’s personality. And some bullies pass their behaviour off as ‘banter’ or ‘joking around’. None of these are acceptable excuses.
A recent Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness to practise case report highlighted issues common in bullying. The perpetrator explained an incident in which he shook a female colleague’s chair to the point she almost fell off it as a ‘humorous exchange’. The woman, on the other hand, said the two did not have the sort of relationship for ‘banter’.
The case report revealed the impact this bullying behaviour had on staffing, with other nurses reluctant to come and work on the ward. The mental health nurse was suspended from the register for six months.
Nurses say employers fail to take action against workplace bullying
In this example, the trust acted on anonymous concerns and the individual has since shown ‘considerable insight’ and low risk of repeating this behaviour. However, many nurses have told us and reported via surveys that they have left jobs due to bullying and/or no action was taken against the individuals.
If behaviour is experienced as intimating, offensive or humiliating then it is unwanted, it’s not banter and should not be happening.
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