Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Committee Chair

Janie M. Carlton

Abstract

Incivility, horizontal violence, uncivil behavior or bullying are only a few terms used to describe the conduct one individual may display toward another that are undesirable in healthcare organizations and consequently gained the attention of regulatory agencies, such as The Joint Commission. Incivility adversely affects healthy work environments, impedes with patient safety and collaboration, has negative financial implications for organizations, and represents an ethical concern in nursing. The purpose of this study was to identify the overall prevalence as well as prevalence based on work areas. In addition, further aims were to examine the likelihood of the study participants calling in sick and/or leaving the organization/department.

The study design was descriptive correlational and utilized a web-based survey distributed to 581 nurses (577 registered nurses and 4 licensed practical nurses) at a 258-bed acute care facility in Western North Carolina. The sample (n= 153) was obtained via non-random convenient sampling. The assessment tool was based on the Horizontal Survey, which was used and modified with the author's permission. Descriptive and correlational statistics revealed the General Medical Unit to have the highest prevalence (M = 4.1, SD = 0.8) in this sample. No correlation was found between the experience of incivility and work absences, whereas, the subjects' expressed thought calling in sick showed a weak correlation to the subjects' active job seeking (r = 0.567). The findings of this study may assist nurse leaders in creating improved work environments as well as inform future research.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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