Levels of mobbing perception among nurses in Eastern Turkey

This is a descriptive and comparative study of levels of mobbing perception among nurses, causes and perpetrators of mobbing, reactions to and factors affecting mobbing.

Data for the study were collected from a sample of 180 Turkish nurses between July 2007 and January 2008 using a three-part questionnaire.

Nurses were frequently subjected to mobbing. Younger nurses, nurses with less institutional and professional experience, nurses with lower levels of education, and nurses working in internal medicine clinics and night shifts reported higher levels of mobbing. Nurses reported their managers as the most frequent perpetrators of mobbing, and bad working conditions as the most important cause of mobbing.

Many participants reported that they had come to accept mobbing incidents and did not lodge any complaints prior to the study. However, they claimed that they will not tolerate mobbing any longer, and will lodge verbal and written complaints.