| Summary: | 碩士 === 高雄醫學大學 === 護理學研究所 === 101 === Workplace bullying is a serious problem and often goes unreported. Long-term workplace bullying at medical settings will affect nurses’ work performances in minor situations and, in serious cases, it can cause depressed mood and deteriorate care quality and jeopardize life and safety of patients. As a result, early detection and prevention of workplace bullying at medical settings is important and urgently needed. This study aimed to investigate the situation of workplace bullying of nurses at clinical settings and the relevant factors, with a special focus on the relationship between bullying and depression.
This study employed cross-sectional study design, using nonrandomized sampling from three hospitals in Southern Taiwan to recruit clinical nurses as study subjects. Data collection was done by structural questionnaires, with 462 valid questionnaires returned from a total of 513 questionnaires, the return rate being 90.8%. The questionnaires included basic attributes, such as demographic data and work-related information, Internal-External Scale (I-E Scale), Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised (NAQ-R), and Taiwan Depression Questionnaire (TDQ). Data collected was analyzed by SPSS for Windows 18.0 software package for statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics showed demographic characteristics, work-related factors, distribution of I-E Scale, and workplace bullying and depression score status; bivariate analysis was done on workplace bullying and depression related factors; and multiple regression analysis was used to investigate determinant factors of bullying.
The result showed that 98.5% of the study subjects were female, with an average age of 31.23 years and average 8.92 years working as a nurse. 60.2% worked in medical or surgical wards and 30.5% worked in special service units. About 87.7% (n=405) nurses had experienced workplace bullying in the past 6 months, with the frequency being from occasionally to frequently. To the form of bullying, work-related bullying happened more frequently than personal attacks and physical intimidation. 29% of the nurses exhibited obvious depressive moods. Factors affecting workplace bullying included whether having a spouse, service unit division, I-E Scale, perceived workload level, and depression. Multiple regression analysis indicated that five important determinant factors explained 24.9% of the variances, and according to the explanatory power, they were depression-mood (17.5%), I-E Scale (3.6%), spouses (2.0%) ,perceived workload level(1.9%), as well as medical and surgical wards (0.7%).
The finding of the study suggested that nursing workplace bullying is prevalent and recommended the issue to be addressed by hospitals’ management level. In addition to the need to improve nurses’ awareness of workplace bullying, effective mechanisms toward workplace bullying prevention and management should be implemented. Variables including depression, I-E Scale, and spouse were significantly correlated with workplace bullying, indicating the importance of assisting nurses with mood management and providing support systems. Moreover, administrative executives should actively take charge of appropriate adjustments to the workload of nurses and creating a caring working environment in the future.
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