Bullying Behaviors, Coping Strategies and It’s Relation to Nurse Interns Self-Esteem

Background: bullying is an emotional issue faced by nurses and students during their clinical practice and has negative impacts on their self-stem. Aim of the study: to assess bullying behavior, coping strategies and its relation to nurse interns' self-esteem. Research design: a descriptive correlational design was used to carry out this study. Setting: The study was conducted at four Ain-Shams University Hospitals where nurse interns were having their training, namely, Ain-Shams University Hospital, El-Demerdash Hospital, Pediatrics Hospital, and Cardiovascular-surgies Hospital. Subjects: The study included 123 out of (179) nurse interns during the academic year (2022-2023). Data collection tools: data were collected by nurse interns' bullying behavior questionnaire, coping strategies questionnaire, and self-esteem assessment scale. Results: the staff nurse is the most common source of bullying. Although most nurse interns always used the self-blame strategy as a coping strategy. The higher mean scores regarding self-esteem among studied nurse interns who were female and had their training at Ain-Shams Hospital. Conclusion: there were highly statistically significant positive correlations between bullying behavior, and coping strategies and negative statistically significant correlations between bullying behavior and self-esteem. Recommendations:regularly assess coping strategies experienced by nurse interns, raising awareness and training for nurses in the hospitals where nurse intern are trained about bullying behaviors, and educational workshops and seminars should be conducted regularly for nurse interns on how to develop and improve students' self-esteem. Further research is proposed to enhance educational programs regarding bullying and its effect on academic achievement and self-esteem among nursing students.