A New Model of Bullying in the Nursing Workplace

A recently validated model of bullying is outlined, which specifies organizational characteristics as critical antecedents and has important implications for the management of bullying, identifying that to be effective, interventions need to address features of workplace climate.

Abstract

In Brief Providing a safe work environment where nurses can practice without fear or threat of aggression is acknowledged as a critical global issue for healthcare organizations. Although there has been growing recognition that workplace bullying is one of the most concerning forms of aggression experienced by nurses, to date, there has been little progress in developing explanatory models. In this article, we outline our recently validated model of bullying, which specifies organizational characteristics as critical antecedents. The model has important implications for the management of bullying, identifying that to be effective, interventions need to address features of workplace climate. Although there has been growing recognition that workplace bullying is one of the most concerning forms of aggression experienced by nurses, there has been little progress in developing explanatory models. This article presents a validated model of bullying, which specifies organizational characteristics as critical antecedents.