Verbal Abuse of Nursing and Midwifery Students in Clinical Settings in Turkey

ABSTRACT This phenomenological study describes nursing and midwifery students’ experiences with and perceptions of verbal abuse in clinical settings in Turkey. Purposive sampling and, within this technique, typical case sampling were used to capture the students’ most typical experiences of verbal abuse. Four categories with 10 themes describing verbal abuse experiences emerged from interviews. The abusive behavior originated from clinical instructors, agency nurses and midwives, physicians, patients, and patients’ families. Abuse included health care professionals’ exhibiting condescending attitudes toward and making derogatory comments about nursing higher education, refusing to share clinical knowledge and skills with students, belittling students’ approaches to patient care, and humiliating and treating students as health care professionals of lesser value. During their clinical education, students were both vulnerable to and the targets of significant verbal abuse from those in supervisory positions. The students were vulnerable to verbal abuse because they were outsiders, left alone to tend to their own learning needs, inexperienced in patient care, and unsure of their rights. Measures should be taken to eliminate verbal abuse not only because of its obvious injustice, but also because it impedes the professionalization of nursing. Faculty and students should be prepared for the possibility of verbal abuse so they can respond assertively. AUTHORS Received: January 5, 2005 Accepted: August 12, 2005 Dr. Lash is Professor, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois. Dr. Kulakaç and Dr. Kukulu are Assistant Professors, and Dr. Buldukoglu is Associate Professor, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. The authors acknowledge Georgia Whitley, EdD, RN, Professor Emeritus, Northern Illinois University, for her suggestions and skillful editing of the manuscript. Address correspondence to Ayhan A. Lash, PhD, RN, FAAN, 648 Chippewa Drive, Naperville, IL 60563; e-mail: .