Nature and Incidence of Bullying among Nurses in Mississippi

Abstract

This study sought to shed light on the issue of workplace bullying in the health care sector by investigating the experience and knowledge of workplace bullying among nurses in Mississippi, where health outcomes remain among the lowest in the country. Based on a sample of 897 nurses in the state, we examined nurses’ familiarity with workplace bullying, the forms of bullying, and the perpetrators of bullying. Through descriptive statistical methods and logistic regression, we found that that the incidence of workplace bullying was higher in Mississippi compared to other states; females are disproportionately bullied; perpetrators of bullying were fellow nurses; nurses familiar with workplace bullying were more likely to spot and report it. Specifically, 98.7% of respondents were at least somewhat familiar with workplace bullying. Of the 61% of respondents who were either targets or witnessed bullying, “verbal abuse” (more than 70% mentions) was the most common form of bullying, while physical abuse was the least popular form of bullying (only 2% of mentions). For over 60% of targets, at least six months of bullying duration was common. From the multivariate logistic regression, the odds of being bullied were between 1.56 and 3.84 times higher for women than they were for men depending on the model specification. From these findings, it is clear that any anti-bullying measures should target all nurses and the organizational culture since the perpetrator is usually a fellow nurse.

Keywords: bullying, logistic regression, nurses, Mississippi

DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/91-10

Publication date:July 31^st 2021