Psychosocial Bullying Among Nurse Educators: Exploring Coping Strategies and Intent to Leave

PURPOSE: To examine the incidence of workplace bullying among nurse educators and explore potential relationships between workplace bullying, professional demographics, coping strategies, and intent to leave. DESIGN: The investigator used a cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational design and Bronfenbrenner's Process-Person-Context-Time model to examine workplace bullying among nurse educators in the northeastern United States. METHODS: A web-based survey was utilized to collect data from a final sample of 470 nurse educators from nine states in the northeastern United States. The instruments included a demographic section, followed by the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R), the Coping Strategy Indicator (CSI), and a three-item job intent turnover questionnaire. Descriptive and parametric statistics were generated for data analysis. FINDINGS: Forty-five percent (n = 212) of participants self-identified as targets of bullying in the workplace within the preceding 6 months. The most frequently reported negative acts encountered among the nurse educators surveyed were being excluded, having one's opinion ignored, and being exposed to an unmanageable workload. Furthermore, statistically significant relationships were identified between workplace bullying and coping strategies (r = .53: p < .01) and intent to leave (r = .58: p < .01) among nurse educators. CONCLUSIONS: Workplace bullying among nurse educators is a serious problem impacting the profession. Heightened awareness and diverse initiatives targeting workplace bullying can positively impact retention of qualified nurse educators. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Findings from this study may contribute to the development of strategies to mitigate the effects of psychosocial bullying and enhance retention of nurse educators.