Lack Of Mentoring In Nursing

Effects of Bullying and the Lack of Mentoring of New Nurses The time is quickly approaching for a young nurse to report to the hospital for her shift. The all too familiar sensation of doom is coming over her as she enters the ward she works in. She worked hard in school, received top grades and great praise from her professors. She is now questioning her decision to enter the nursing profession. This is a typical experience for many newly graduated nurses. New nurses often experience confusing and conflicting information from doctors, experienced nurses and patient’s. The newly graduated nurse needs a mentor that she can communicate effectively with for clarification and educational development in her new

After much study Cooper and Swanson concluded that workplace bullying is a significant, under-reported, and under-recognized occupational safety and health problem. The nurse is in a work relationship with a more experienced nurse that is not mentoring, guiding or supporting the new nurse. According to Weaver (9), nurses who bully are those who feel the power imbalance associated with restricted autonomy and autocratic leadership. The nurses are expressing negative behaviors toward the next in line in due to the nurse’s power disparity from the dominant control by physicians and administrators. Other factors pointed out by Rocker 2008 may have their origin in individual mental illnesses and drug and alcohol habits. Organizational factors include lack of resources, understaffing due to the nursing shortage, poor work group relationships, changes in composition of work groups, low supervisor support, increased workload, downsizing, and organizational restructuring (Cooper & Swanson, 2002). With so many varied causes for and negative effects of bullying it would be beneficial for both the perpetrator and the victim to keep a journal to help all involved better understand the

Become educated about nurse and employer responsibilities. Develop overall positive behaviors. A policy such as this can enhance the self-concept of the workgroup itself, thus strengthening group members to prevent bullying within the group (Rocker, 2008). No one should be quietly excepting of workplace behaviors that go against The American Nurses Code of Ethics. When work interference is normalized the patient’s quality of care suffers as well as the nurse’s morale. If nurses are unclear on the doctor’s orders the nurse must be humble and mature enough to understand that clarification must be actively sought after. The new nurse’s mentor is to be a role model for her mentee to learn how to increase her productivity, effectiveness and overall quality of patient care. It is the team’s combined efforts to be self-policing, mentoring, and to give recognition of a job well done. That will build strong positive team interrelationships between doctors, managers, nurses and attract future nurses to the profession. It is in following all of these steps that will prevent workplace bullying, increase the quality of patient care, and make for an actively passionate healthcare system to