Are we there yet? A nationwide study of faculty-to-faculty bullying and incivility in nursing education

Abstract

BackgroundFaculty-to-faculty bullying and incivility in nursing education remain prevalent. The effects are harmful to individual faculty members, and they weaken the organization. AimThe study aimed to measure faculty perceptions of bullying and incivility within their organization and identify the most commonly occurring bullying behaviors and types of incivility. The survey instruments were the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R) and the Workplace Incivility/Civility Scale (WICS). This is the first known national study to use both. MethodsThe study used a convergent mixed-method design and a convenience sample. ResultsThere were 1,417 responses from nursing faculty from every state and the territory of Guam. The most frequently occurring bullying behavior was being ignored, while the most frequent uncivil behavior was being interrupted. The incidence of faculty-to-faculty bullying and incivility was lower in this study than in previous studies. However, despite the slight decrease, verbatim responses in the qualitative portion of the study reveal that mean-spirited, petty, and vitriolic remarks occur frequently.