Citation

Losa Iglesias ME, Becerro de Bengoa Vallejo R. Contemp. Nurse 2012; 42(1): 2-10.

Affiliation

Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, King Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.5172/conu.2012.42.1.2

PMID

23050566

Abstract

Background: Bullying has been recognized as an important and increasing problem for nurses, who are faced with different kinds of bullying. Recent research has suggested a possible association between bullying and low self-esteem. Objective: To determine the prevalence of bullying at work in a sample of Spanish nurses; to examine the association between bullying and self-esteem; and to investigate the prognostic factors that determine bullying at work. Design: A descriptive survey study was developed to represent the population of Spanish nurses. Participants: The sample consisted of 538 nurses who met the inclusion criteria of having worked for a minimum of one year in adult or paediatric services in the public or private heath care system of Principado de Asturias-Spain. Methods: The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) and the Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ) standardized for Spain were used to measure self-esteem and bullying behaviours respectively. Results: Our results show that about one in five nurses (17%) experienced subjective bullying, and 8% of these cases reported weekly or daily bullying. The negative acts reported most frequently in bullied and non-bullied nurses were work-related bullying behaviours, such as 'Being given tasks with unreasonable or impossible targets or deadlines' (2.71 SD = 1.33). However, bullied nurses reported significantly higher rates in all questions of the NAQ, and self-reported bullying was significantly related to low self-esteem (χ(2) = 109; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Prevalence of self-reported bullying is high among Spanish nurses and is clearly associated with higher exposure to bullying behaviours at work and lower levels of self-esteem.

Language: en