Outliers: New nurses vs. bullies

Nurses just starting their careers have a lot to worry about. Adjusting to a new job while keeping patients and administrators happy can't be easy.

Now you can add fear of being bullied to the list.

Verbal abuse is a particular problem for nurses just starting their careers, according to a study released recently by researchers at the NYU College of Nursing.

“There's a traditional saying that nurses eat their young,” lead author Wendy Budin, who has a doctorate in nursing and is director of nursing research at NYU Langone Medical Center, told Crain's New York Business.

Nurse-on-nurse bullying—such as humiliating criticism in front of a patient—helps no one, she says. It can be avoided by educating senior nurses in better ways to correct a new nurse and by teaching new RNs to stand up for themselves.

“We tell early career nurses to say, 'When you talk to me like that, it undermines my confidence,' ” Budin says.

The culture of verbal abuse may stem from the field's domination by women, suggested researchers, so that mean-spirited behavior displayed in adolescent cliques spills into the workplace. Regardless of how it started, Budin says, there is now a concerted effort to stop it, because it can lead to medical errors.

“We found (senior nurses) were often not aware that what they were doing was seen as intimidation,” she says. Many nurses surveyed said they were upset by nonverbal actions such as eye-rolling.

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