Student nurses rely on clinical placements to develop and practice essential nursing skills. However, the toxic environment bullying has created poisons their education and jeopardizes their health, spurring on ramification that last lifetimes.
A safe workplace environment is essential for a positive mental health (MHCS). Nurses spend nearly half their day at their workplace and good psychological health is essential for effective patient care. A Turkish study on the effects of bullying in the workplace revealed student nurses experienced numerous physiological, emotional and social reactions (Yildirum & Yildirum, 2007). Nurse bullying can cause low self-esteem, anxiety, distress, tiredness (Varita, 2001) and symptoms of post-tramatic stress disorder (Mitchell, 2010). 10% of student nurses even contemplated committing suicide (Yildirum & …show more content…
A U.S study investigating student nurses behaviours when bullied revealed that only 14.7% reported the incident to their supervisor, and the majority 34.9% took no action whatsoever (McAdam Cooper, 2007). However, in New Zealand, only 12% of student nurses who reported an incident received a formal debriefing (McKenna et al., 2002). Many student nurses feel the need to stay silent; 20% of student nurses stated that they feared the backlash that could accompany their seeking help (McKenna et al., 2002). A U.K study explained some of the reasons why student nurses fail to report bullying incidents. A majority of student nurses agreed that it was not worth the trouble because clinical placements are only temporary and if they reported the behaviour, the bully would be notified and they did not want to risk a bad assessment (Stevenson et al, 2006). This mentality is not safe because the bully may not be aware of their actions and will continue their behaviour. All studies emphasized the first step to stopping nurse bullying is to report the