Perception of Nursing Educators on disruptive behaviors in the work environment

Abstract

Background: Nursing educators play an integral role in our community by teaching and preparing nurses for our future who can help manage our healthcare system. However, globally it is seen that these nursing educators are the ones who suffer the most due to the disruptive behaviors in their respective work environments. Bullying, violence, and incivility that these educators faced negatively affect their behavior, profession, students, and surroundings.

Objective: The current study aims to describe the nursing educators' perception regarding the disruptive behaviors they faced in their professional work environment.

Methodology: The current cross-sectional study was conducted from Jul 8, 2021, to Jul 31, 2021. Data was collected using a revised version of an online Negative Acts Questionnaire-(NAQ-R). Participants were selected from nursing colleges, medical universities where nursing training and education are provided. A total of 15 Nurse Educators filled the online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS.20.

Results: A total of 15 nursing educators (10(66.7%) female and 5(33.3%) male) participated in the study. The mean age of the nursing educators was 36.3 ± 7.4 years, and their average job duration was 9.5 ± 6.7 years. Through online NAQ-R, it was determined that 33.3% of the nursing educators occasionally faced disruptive behavior in different forms, while 46.7% of educators faced humiliation or are bullied when gossip and rumours about them are spread or when they are being exposed to an unmanageable workload.

Conclusion: It is concluded that most nursing educators occasionally face disruptive behaviour in their work environment in the form of withholding the information, ignorance, being ordered for doing work below level or excessive monitoring.