Workplace bullying among Nurses in South Taiwan

This study was to investigate bullying among hospital nurses and its correlates.

Chinese people were unlikely to express their opinions or pursue individual rights. Workplace bullying took place more easily among the educated people within Chinese culture. However, studies related to workplace bullying among hospital nurses in Taiwan were still limited.

A cross-sectional design.

Two hundred and eighty-five nurses who worked in the regional teaching hospital in south Taiwan were recruited. The significant predictors of workplace bullying were identified by using linear regression analysis.

The mean of overall bullying was 1·47, showing that the frequency of the nurses having experienced workplace bullying was between 'never' and 'now and then'. The most frequent bullying item was 'being yelled at or being the target of anger', followed by 'being the objects of untruthful criticism' and 'having views ignored'. Hospital nurses working in the Emergency room would gain 10·888 points more in the overall bullying scale compared with those who worked in operation rooms or haemodialysis rooms. They were more likely to be bullied. Hospital nurses with one year increase in nursing experience were 0·207 points less likely to be bullied.

Reducing workplace bullying among hospital nurses was an essential method to provide quality assurance to health care. Nurse managers should build up zero tolerance policy to decrease nurses' exposure to workplace bullying.

Training programmes related to bullying prevention are suggested to avoid workplace bullying. The contents of the educational training programmes or workshops should incorporate the characteristics and consequences of the workplace bullying, and the strategies to deal with bullying.