Emphasising compassion for co-workers in medical training and healthcare organisations to address bullying

The over-representation of bullying in healthcare is incongruent with the compassion of healthcare professionals. This issue needs to be addressed at the levels of medical training and organisation by extending the emphasis on compassionate patient care to include care for co-workers.

What constitutes workplace bullying in the UK?

Marcus Wong discusses the all too pervasive issue of workplace bullying in healthcare, along with the legal and ethical obligations of managers to address these incidents and protect staff from harm.

Workplace Bullying in Healthcare: A Qualitative Analysis of Bystander Experiences

Bystander action has been proposed as a promising intervention to tackle workplace bullying, however there is a lack of in-depth qualitative research on the direct experiences of bystanders. In this paper, we developed a more comprehensive definition of bullying bystanders, and examined first person accounts from healthcare professionals who had been bystanders to workplace bullying. These perspectives highlighted factors that influence the type and the extent of support bystanders may offer to targets. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 43 healthcare professionals who were working in the UK, of which 24 had directly witnessed bullying. The data were transcribed and analysed using Thematic Analysis. The analysis identified four themes that describe factors that influence the type and extent of support bystanders offer to targets of bullying: (a) the negative impact of witnessing bullying on bystanders, (b) perceptions of target responsibility, (c) fear of repercussions, and (d) bystander awareness. Our findings illustrate that, within the healthcare setting, bystanders face multiple barriers to offering support to targets and these factors need to be considered in the wider context of implementing bystander interventions in healthcare settings.

Workplace bullying in healthcare facilities: Role of caste and reservation

Medical education in India is afflicted with a culture of abuse and workplace bullying of junior doctors and medical students. This abuse is often rationalised on grounds of so-called high standards of healthcare delivery. Poor standards of work sometimes get attributed to caste-based reservations vs admissions based on “merit” due to elitist mindsets that prevail in our society. The cycle of abuse that goes on in medical colleges is incorporated (though not in a legal sense) into its hierarchical structure. Focussing attention only on casteism tends to overshadow the bullying of doctors and medical students by their senior colleagues at the workplace.

Workplace Bullying in Healthcare: A Critically Appraised Topic

Focused Clinical Question: In athletic training, what is the percentage of workplace bullying compared to the percentage in nursing? Clinical Bottom Line: There is evidence that workplace bullying is prevalent in the athletic training and nursing professions.