NR 500 Week 7 Discussion Healthful Environments

Sample Answer

Incivility in the workplace can happen in a variety of ways. Sometimes, it can be happening around us without us noticing the effects of it right away. One situation that I can recall involving incivility in the workplace happened with one of our new graduate nurses in the emergency room. This new graduate nurse was one of our own nurse techs who transitioned to a nurse upon obtaining her license. She was overall a great person, but she was very attentive to details and asked many questions, as new nurses should do. This sometimes caused some of the other nurses to be annoyed with her.

Some nurses became passive aggressive with her. McNamara (2012) states, “Passive aggressive behaviors are typically more subtle behaviors, but they can be just as disruptive to the work environment. These include failure to support a coworker, setting someone up for failure, treating someone with silence or refusal to communicate, being impatient with another’s inquiry, communicating incomplete information that results in sabotage, and expressing a negative attitude that affects a coworker’s confidence.”

Unfortunately, she caught onto other people’s actions and was afraid to ask questions anymore. I honestly felt bad for the girl. I took her under my wing whenever she needed help and told her that it was okay to ask questions because that’s how you learn. I reminded her that everyone started out as a new nurse in their career. The consequences of the incivility in the workplace caused her to eventually transfer to another department in the hospital. This negatively affected the work environment because we lost a potentially great emergency room nurse who was very knowledgeable.

The situation could have easily been prevented if everyone would realize and remember that they once were a new nurse who had to learn by asking questions. “To help prevent lateral violence in nursing, a culture of safety is needed to create and sustain an environment where team members are encouraged to speak up to leaders and peers.” (Stanton, 2015. P8)

• McNamara, S. A. (2012). Incivility in nursing unsafe nurse, unsafe patients. AORN Journal, 95(4), 535-540. doi 10.1016/j.aorn.2012.01.020
• Stanton, C. (2015). Action needed to stop lateral violence in the perioperative setting. AORN Journal, 101(5), P7-P9.