Analysis of Bullying and Harassment Experienced by Fourth-Year Nursing Students in their Clinical Practice

Abstract

BACKGROUND // Nursing students, with their inexperience and the frequent challenge of encountering new environments, are a potentially vulnerable group for bullying and harassment in the work setting. The aim of this study was to analyze the bullying and/or harassment experienced by Nursing students during their clinical practice.

METHODS // A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at the University of León and the study population was fourth-year nursing students. The measurement instrument was a 24-item questionnaire approved by the University Ethics Committee. The chi-square test, Student’s t-test and Mann Whitney U test were used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS // A prevalence of 26.5% (22/83) of students who suffered episodes of bullying and/or harassment was observed; younger students suffered these events from physicians, patients and family members and/or companions to a greater extent. This produced an impact on the psychological well-being of the students, who felt depressed, humiliated and incapable, which negatively affected the level of care provided to patients.

CONCLUSIONS // The overall problem studied presents a lower prevalence than that obtained in other work carried out in the rest of the world; as a consequence, there is an impact on the psychological well-being of the students that affects their level of attention to the tasks they are carrying out and their way of working with others.