The Effect of Bullying on Burnout in Nurses

Critique of Research Studies: Quantitative
Title: The Effect of Bullying on Burnout in Nurses: The Moderating Role of Psychological Detachment
Abstract
Horizontal violence, or workplace bullying of nurses, remains a serious problem for the nursing profession. But while bullying remains a serious issue for all nurses in all workplaces, all nurses are individuals and experience the phenomenon in psychologically complex and distinct ways. This study attempted to discern the extent to which psychological detachment from the situation could act as a buffer for the nurse in protecting her against the stressors of negative judgements and pressures.
Introduction
Bullying is a serious issue within all professions, but the nursing profession in particular has been notorious for the phenomenon of nurses “eating their young,” or subjecting new and younger members of the profession to psychological stress and bullying. In this study by Allen, Holland, & Reynolds (2015), the researchers attempted to discern the extent to which a specific psychological phenomenon, that of psychological detachment, acted as a moderating influence upon the negative impact of bullying in the workplace. Psychological detachment is defined as the ability to detach one’s self from the work situation, if not physically, then through psychological strategies.
Statement of the Problem
While workplace bullying remains a problem from an ethical standpoint, determining if some nurses are more psychologically vulnerable to it might help better understand the problem and provide cognitively useful strategies for nurses to cope with the phenomenon.
Hypotheses or Research Questions
The hypothesis, which was ultimately disproved, was that nurses capable of psychological detachment are apt to be more resilient in the face of workplace bullying.
Literature Review
The literature review of this particular study began with a survey of the issue of workplace bullying. Due to the stresses incumbent upon many nurses in the workplace, nurses may lash out at other nurses, particularly if they feel as if the administration is not responsive to their concerns about overly long shifts and irregular hours. Bullying can be the result of older and more experienced nurses experiencing burnout. It can also, of course, provoke burnout in the victims of bullying, exacerbate workplace attrition and therefore further contribute to workplace stress, thus exacerbating the cycle rather than healing it. As a potentially disruptive force, the authors of the study suggest that psychological detachment may have a healing factor. Resiliency, or the observation that some individuals are more resilient to certain types of stressors than others, is an underlying assumption to this psychological construct. Resiliency would suggest that psychological detachment has a protective quality.
Conceptual/Theoretical Framework
Two conceptual frameworks provided the underpinnings of this study. The first was that of horizontal violence or bullying, which has been deemed to have certain unique causes and features within the nursing profession. The second was that of psychological detachment, which suggested would provide a buffer to the effects of bullying and at least reveal psychological distinctions between nurses. However, in the quantitative questionnaire submitted to the 762 registered nurse participants, even nurses with a high degree of psychological detachment in the workplace were still to have found to suffer considerably from the long-term psychological effects of bullying and experience negative consequences.
Critique of Research Studies: Qualitative
Title: Nurse Staffing Issues are Just the tip of the Iceberg: A Qualitative Study About Nurses’ Perceptions of Nurse Staffing
Abstract
Nurse staffing due to the nursing shortage as well as a shortage of nurses in specific areas of specialization has often been cited as the source of numerous healthcare problems. This article, however, provides a more holistic view of staffing-related problems. It offers a qualitative, phenomenological perspective from the nurse’s eye view and how nurses view staffing issues.
Introduction
Nurse staffing remains a problem worldwide. The researchers of this particular study attempted to understand why staffing was a problem, not simply from a supply-based standpoint in terms of a failure to produce enough nursing graduates but while staffing inadequacies exist on nursing floors from the immediate perceptions of nurses. Based upon observations and interviews collected from a focus group of 44 nurses at a 1,000 bed Dutch hospital, the researchers identified communication problems which existed between nurses and other healthcare providers and administrators such as physicians and managers. A lack of autonomy of decision-making for nurses made staff numbers ineffective on the floor compounded with a failure of nurses to be allowed to practice with a full range of authority in their various capacities, regardless of education.


Statement of the Problem
In the perceptions of nurses, why do current staffing levels appear to be inadequate to care for patients?
Research Questions
What do nurses themselves perceive as problems which contribute to staffing difficulties?
Literature Review
This research study undertook an explicitly qualitative perspective of the problem of nursing staffing. This is significant, given that other studies of staffing issues have traditionally focused upon the educational or medical infrastructure of the healthcare system of various nations as a whole, rather than examining on a hospital level how interpersonal and communication tensions can exacerbate staffing challenges. The study provided an overview of how the nursing perspective and paradigm has been viewed and at times undervalued by other healthcare providers in its analysis as well as a justification for the qualitative approach of the researchers, contrary to the usual quantitative and analytical lens applied to problems with staffing.
Conceptual Underpinnings
The conceptual underpinning was qualitative in nature, allowing nurses to speak for themselves without imposing an existing paradigm upon their experiences. Researchers sought to derive new insights about the problem of nursing staffing in an inductive fashion, allowing nurses to offer their unique perceptions that might challenge existing hypotheses of why staffing problems may occur. The nurses informed researchers that inadequate numbers of nurses were simply the tip of the iceberg of the problem, and there were far deeper issues in terms of communicating the value of the nursing paradigm to other staff members, allowing nurses to practice within the full scope of their expertise and practice, and reluctance to allow nurses to engage in fully decision-making and participate in leadership decisions. The result was ineffective use of human resources on the ward.




Reference
Allen, B. C., Holland, P., & Reynolds, R. (2015). The Effect of bullying on burnout in nurses:
The moderating role of psychological detachment. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(2), 381-390. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bfa0/a66f81e5930599df9391ccdf504c3cf1aac2.pdf
Van Oostveen, C. J., Mathijssen, E., & Vermeulen, H. (2015). Nurse staffing issues are just the
tip of the iceberg: A qualitative study about nurses’ perceptions of nurse staffing.
International Journal of Nursing Studies, 52(8), 1300-1309. Retrieved from: http://daneshyari.com/article/preview/1076172.pdf