Essay Sample on Incivility in the Workplace

Introduction

In every day's life, civility is critical and it entails observation of basic rules of interpersonal demeanor. Workplace incivility is a serious problem in clinical settings. The problem does not only negatively impacts the clinicians having to deal with the inappropriate behavior but also on the care delivery. People that encounter incivility which they can be witnesses or targets can be impacted in different aspects such as somatic, psychological or behavioral ("Incivility", 2015). Actions that are disruptive can result in medical errors, minimize the quality of care for the patients, and ultimately increase medical costs. However, there have been developments sought to address workplace incivility in the healthcare metaparadigm. This paper determines the effects incivility for nurses and how it can be addressed.

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Impacts of Work Incivility on Nurse's Ability

Incivility in the workplace has been considered a negative behavior and therefore has negative implications. Workplace incivility can, therefore, be defined as a deviant behavior which is intended to cause harmful effects and it violates workplace norms (Shi et al., 2018). Incivility has been evidenced as a serious issue for the healthcare field and the nursing profession. It negatively affects the nurse's intrinsic sense of self-worth and self-confidence. The results are expansive and may include headaches, abnormal sleep patterns, and even intestinal complications. In addition, these uncivil actions are associated with emotional conditions such as increased emotional stress, being anxious, irritability and notable symptoms of depression (Shi et al., 2018). It has been indicated by ANA that increased emotional stress can lead to posttraumatic stress disorders. Ultimately, there are implications that the nurse's clinical judgment is impaired reducing their performance.

Incivility in the workplace harms the nurse's self-esteem. Incivility in the workplace can be likened to the subtle spiral infiltration model. This means that there is a slow accumulation of low level over a long period and the ultimate result is high level and negatively impacting the nurses ("Incivility", 2015). Since the harm of incivility is experienced over an extended period of time, the victim nurse experiences both physical and mental damage. The impact of incivility on the mental health of individual nurse entails anxiety, stress, mental depression and cognitive dissonance among others. There are also impacts on physical health such as migraines, ulcers and increased blood pressure among others.

Issues Within the Workplace or Clinical Site Incivility

Emerging evidence indicates that workplace incivility has substantial effects on patient care, medication errors and policies, and procedures (Luparell, 2011). A study that was conducted by the Institute for Safe Medication practices sought to determine the effect incivility in the workplace impacted nurses and ultimately on medication errors. It was reported that 7% of the Registered Nurses explained incivility in the workplace resulted into medication errors. Incivility leads to increment in errors concerning patient safety ("Incivility", 2015). In addition, there is an increase in the rate of patient falls and inadequate medication administration. Work incivility has the potential of decreasing the nurse's confidence and competence and this negatively impacts on the patient care and care outcomes. Workplace incivility has been reported to result in poor communication and unprofessional relationships among nurses which directly affects patient outcomes and safety (Luparell, 2011).

Workplace incivility has implications even on organizational policies and procedures since measures must be taken to address this deviance behavior. Some of the policies and procedures have been instituted by various regulatory and professional organizations. For instance, in 2010, the Joint Commission issued a directive that health care organizations are required to adopt new standards that put into place policies and procedures to address uncivility in clinical settings (Luparell, 2011). In addition. AACN has formulated standards that seek to provide healthy work environments.

Impact of Workplace Incivility on Workplace or Clinical Site Communication

Effective communication is critical in ensuring patient care and safety. Since nurses work in teams, there is the utilization of closed-loop communication in which the sender generates a message, it is received by the receiver and a check is provided to indicate the reception of the accurate message (Logan, 2016). In healthcare settings, it helps to keep health care practitioners and patients informed at all time. It, therefore, that communication is critical in any clinical site. This underscores the need for teamwork in any organization since it is critical for quality patient care (Logan, 2016). Since workplace incivility negatively affects communication, the quality of care is impacted.

It is important to note that nurses that work under favorable conditions provide quality patient care and safety. One critical factor is communication, and in the situation, it is affected by incivility, the result is a misinterpretation of messages which leads to making the wrong decisions (Logan, 2016). The lack of effective communication leads to reduced performance and increased medication errors which means that patients suffer.

Current Initiatives to Address Incivility in Clinical Sites

It is critical to developing a safe work environment since it ensures physical and emotional well-being. In the situation that nurses do not feel safe, the clinical site becomes vulnerable and therefore the safety of the patients and that of the workers is compromised. Effective interventions or initiatives are critical in ensuring the development of the safe working environment. There is a need for collaboration between nurses and employers to promote respect and dignity so that the problem of incivility is address. Regulatory and professional organizations have developed standards that help deal with uncivil behavior in clinical settings. For instance, in 2010, the Joint Commission provided a sentinel alert and the need for the adoption of new standards that necessitated health care organizations to institute strategies to deal with uncivility (Luparell, 2011).

The American Nurses Association in 2015 provided a position statement on workplace incivility and it sought to detail the collaborated responsibility of employers and nurses. ANA has provided a framework set to address workplace incivility (Loriann et al., 2016). The framework is three-tier having primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Nurses can utilize this approach to address the problem of uncivility. The primary prevention entails the phase in which there is identification, and education of issues related to uncivility (Loriann et al., 2016). Secondary phase emphasizes the reduction of harm in the situation of the uncivil incident. Lastly, there is a tertiary phase which focuses on the reduction of potential fallout.

Conclusion

Incivility in the workplace is any action that is considered offensive and it affects the practice environment. The paper has explained that workplace incivility affects the confidence and performance of nurses since it negatively impacts on their physical and mental well-being. The nurses' confidence and performance is affected, the implications are on patient care outcomes since the quality of care is compromised. In addition, organizations must change their policies and procedures to address the deviance behavior. Communication in clinical sites is critical and uncivil behavior prevents effective communication. It leads to misinterpretation of messages, reduced performance, and increased medication errors and this means that patients suffer. Due to the prevalence of this problem regulatory organization such as the Joint Commission and ANA has developed standards that healthcare organizations should implement.

References

Incivility, Bullying, and Workplace Violence. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/~49d6e3/globalassets/practiceandpolicy/nursing-excellence/incivility-bullying-and-workplace-violence--ana-position-statement.pdf

Logan, T. (2016). Influence of teamwork behaviors on workplace incivility as it applies to nurses. Creighton Journal of Interdisciplinary Leadership, 2(1), 47 - 53.

Loriann, M., Charmaine, C., & Karen, B. (2016). Nursing Management. American Journal of Nursing, 47(9), 30-34.

Luparell, S. (2011). Incivility in Nursing: The Connection between Academia and Clinical Settings. Critical care nurse, 31(2), 92-95.

Shi, Y., Guo, H., Zhang, S., Xie, F., Wang, J., & Sun, Z. et al. (2018). Impact of workplace incivility against new nurses on job burn-out: a cross-sectional study in China. BMJ Open, 8(4), e020461. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020461