Nurses are experiencing and witnessing disruptive behaviors in the workplace and healthcare leaders should address them to improve staff engagement, morale, and retention.
A survey of nearly 2,500 nurses on disruptive behaviors in the workplace found that 25.1% reported sometimes being ignored or given the silent treatment by other nurses, possibly putting patients at risk.
The survey's findings, which were recently released as part of the Health Workplace Institute report, A Healthcare Leader’s Guide to Evaluating Common Disruptive Behaviors Using a New Validated Assessment Tool, also found that 33.7% of respondents experienced sometimes being mocked or having other nurses roll their eyes at them, and 27.7% were sometimes made to feel stupid or incompetent.
Survey respondents also reported frequently witnessing disruptive behaviors in the workplace, including seeing nurses mocked or insulted behind their backs (25.3%) and seeing others receive uneven workload assignments, seemingly based on favoritism (17.7%).
The report suggests that when disruptive behaviors are addressed, it leads to improved collaboration and communication in the workplace, as well as improving staff engagement, morale, and retention.
Healthcare leaders can begin to address disruptive behavior in the workplace by heightening awareness of them. The report, which can be downloaded here, contains a 15-question assessment tool that can be used to measure the frequency of common disruptive behaviors in the workplace.