The Bullying of Older Nurses - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

Forget nurses eating their young, a manager recently told me. A growing problem today is the lack of respect and bullying of older nurses. Nurse managers confirm for me that they are seeing more of the type of behavior. One manager told me that she observed a staff nurse asking a young nurse to speak a little louder when giving report because she was having difficulty hearing her. The nurse looked at her and said either get a hearing aid or stop working. She told me watching the interaction left her speechless. These incidents usually occur when older staff have challenges hearing, reading or using new technology. The responses that managers have observed and have had to deal with include derisive comments, eye rolling, shoulder shrugging, and other disrespectful behavior.

At a time when the turnover rate in nursing has reached 17.2% and experienced staff is scarce, bullying behaviors can lead older nurses to leave organizations. They may feel they are not psychologically safe to work in and their talents are not valued. Their life experience and often exquisite skills working with distraught families are discounted. We all suffer when this happens. Leaders need to be on alert for signs of this bullying and take quick action when it happens.

Signs of Horizontal Violence

As a nurse leader, the challenge is to identify behaviors that should be characterized as bullying in order to stop the cycle. Nurse leaders have a responsibility to analyze the culture of units and watch closely for verbal and nonverbal cues in the behavior of staff. Some common ones include:

Talking behind one’s back instead of directly resolving conflicts
Making belittling comments or criticizing colleagues in front of others
Describing a colleague as very old or technologically inept
Not sharing important information with a colleague
Isolating or freezing out a colleague from group activities
Snide or abrupt remarks
Refusing to be available when a colleague needs assistance
Acts of sabotage that deliberately set victims up for a negative situation
Raising eyebrows or making faces in response to the comments of colleagues
Failing to respect the privacy of colleagues
Broken confidences

Breaking the Cycle

A culture of zero-tolerance for bullying is the most effective leadership strategy to prevent its occurrence. If a manager suspects that this could be an issue on the unit, I would recommend talking with seasoned staff about how they are experiencing the current work environment and whether bullying is an issue. It is important that the problem is labeled as “bullying”. Staff needs to be educated about the behaviors that constitute bullying to help break the silence. Raising the issue at a staff meeting and letting staff tell their stories is a key step to helping rebuild a culture. Staff should know that you will quickly be responsive when you observe the behavior or when it is brought to your attention. Leaders need to engage in self-awareness activities to ensure that their own leadership style does not support bullying.

Nursing research indicates that exposure to bullying comes at a high cost to the organization and often results in staff turnover. Nurses who are victims of bullying may have problems sleeping, develop low self-esteem, exhibit depression, have poor morale and use excessive sick leave. It is also a patient safety issue when communication is compromised because of concerns about bullying. Some of our young nurses may need to be educated about the destructiveness of this behavior and how it could potentially derail their careers.

Read Rose Sherman’s new book available now – The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave