Nursing & Healthcare

Harassment & Bullying in Nursing & Healthcare

A sample of Susan’s healthcare training and webinar topics include the following:

Bullying and Harassment: A Sepsis in Healthcare
Nurse to Nurse Bullying: Reality vs Rhetoric
Effective Communication Strategies to Combat a Culture of Silence
Care of the LGBT Patient and Their Families: Policies, Procedures, Practices and the Law
Violence in Healthcare: Thinking the Unthinkable, from Bullying to Domestic Violence to the Active Shooter.

Healthcare organizations are said to be more at risk for harassment, bullying, and violence than most other industries; this is a worldwide phenomenon. Advances in academic research have revealed that these pervasive issues necessitate a purposeful, systemic, organizational response, both nationally and internationally.

Every two years, an international conference on violence in healthcare is held in order to elucidate how workplace misconduct is being addressed in healthcare organizations around the world. Research suggests that healthcare workers - especially nurses - are highly likely to bear the brunt of verbal and physical violence, harassment and bullying; these incidents may be perpetrated by physicians, patients and their families, visitors, and coworkers. Oftentimes, the bully or harasser is not held accountable and the misconduct continues, resulting in poor morale, turnover, absenteeism, and costly lawsuits.

One of the most egregious outcomes of bullying in healthcare is that this type of aberrant behavior negatively impacts patient care. A toxic workplace culture creates an environment wherein broken lines of communication lead to medication errors, decreased quality of treatment, surgical mistakes, and a lack of collaborative practice. The hierarchical environment of the healthcare industry also lends itself to the propagation of communication breakdown. In 2008, The Joint Commission created a patient safety standard dealing specifically with the toxic environment and its negative impact on quality of patient care.

Organizational culture is comprised of the “how”, “why”, and “what” of an organization’s environment. The healthcare culture has a rich history of enmeshed patriarchal dominance. Research reveals that the dominance and oppression of the patriarchal system result in the silence of those who are oppressed; this fear is born from hopelessness that change can be affected within such a calcified system steeped in unwritten rules that govern behavior.

The rules of the workplace may be clearly spelled out - such as in policies and procedures, but there are also implied, intentional, and unintentional “rules” that may result in unintended consequences, such as disparate treatment of female nurses. Unfortunately, an organization may find that its policies and actions may be in conflict with its own guiding principles, mission, values, and strategic plan.

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Susan Strauss conducting a 3-day conference on violence in healthcare for health professionals in Beirut, Lebanon

Susan conducts training on issues related to discrimination, harassment, bullying and violence in healthcare; she facilitates powerful organization-wide conversations that directly address these forms of misconduct and their impact on workplace culture and patient care. Additionally, Susan’s work addresses the implementation of effective strategies for mitigating systemic root causes that perpetuate a negative healthcare climate. In the role of coach/consultant, Dr. Strauss works directly with employees and physicians who have demonstrated workplace misconduct.