Mentoring students: exploring and managing incivil behaviour in community nursing placements

Students who demonstrate quiet incivility can be challenging and disrupt the learning that takes place in the community setting. Recognising incivility and acting to address this behaviour with students is difficult because the behaviour is not overt or obvious to others. The most important component in attempting to manage incivility is exploring the behaviour with the student to identify the potential cause, and negotiate a strategy to improve it. It is acknowledged that the behaviour may be due to personal, academic, or professional issues. If issues are not addressed, care activity and learning are affected, and this can result in failure to achieve in practice.