Prevention of Workplace incivility

INTRODUCTION

Workplace incivility (WPI) is a significant problem in healthcare centres, disturbing not only the clinicians enduring the negative behaviours but also the care that is delivered under the shadow of incivility. Hutton and Gates stated that “incivility is characteristically rude and disrespectful, revealing a lack of respect for others.

Individuals who experience incivility, either as targets or witnesses, may suffer numerous negative behavioral, psychological, and somatic effects. In addition, threatening and disruptive actions can also lead to medical errors, reduce patient satisfaction, and increase the cost of care; meanwhile, with the recent modifications in the health care system, such concerns have become even more crucial to address

Definition of Workplace incivility

Workplace incivility can be defined as deviant workplace behavior of low intensity which includes behavior as being rude, discourteous, impolite or violating workplace norms of behavior. People engaging in uncivil behavior may not necessarily have bad or harmful intent.

The workplace is replete with examples of incivility. some of the following examples 

•  Rudeness 
• Treating a subordinate like a child 
• Berating a subordinate or co-worker 
• Making unfounded accusations
• Gossiping 
• Excluding co-workers or team members. 
• Interrupting people 
• Texting during a presentation 
• Jamming a printer or copier and letting someone else deal with it 
• Use of demeaning language 
• Creating unnecessary and irrelevant controversy

Causes of Work place incivility

1.Mismatched Team Members

Team members need to be matched by several factors. First, their ability to do the tasks assigned to them and second, their personalities and work drives should match other members of their team. When you have a mismatch of personalities, or if there are team members who are simply incompetent, you have a breeding ground for incivility. Take the time to match team members correctly to avoid these issues and monitor teams for signs of stress and potential issues before they get out of hand.

2. Low Employee Morale

Low employee morale is a large cause for incivility in the workplace. If employees are dissatisfied with their jobs or feel that their work is going unappreciated, they are more likely to exhibit signs of stress and hostility towards others, particularly if those employees are being recognized. Maintain an attitude of fairness in the workplace and recognize employees individually and equally. Keep an eye on low morale and do what you can to improve it.

3.Workplace Stress

Stress in the workplace i s another large contributor to incivility. Looming deadlines, project failures, long work days or long stretches without time off can wear on an employee and as a result, they may display rude behavior both to their fellow workers as well as customers. Some stress cannot be avoided and is naturally a part of a job. However, workers can be educated on stress management and managers can offer help to keep stress levels at a manageable level.

4.Bad behaviour

At the other end of the spectrum there are people who are simply rude. They may not have learned coping skills as young adults, and they may have issues with getting along with others. Bad behavior and incivility can spread faster than a cold in an office if left unchecked and even normally polite employees may find themselves snapping at others. In this case, it is best to monitor for signs of one employee causing problems with others and pull them aside to meet about the issue. If their behavior persists after the meeting or if they seem incapable of changing, you may need to think about having them seek employment elsewhere.

Consequences of incivility

• Poor health 
• Depression and low self esteem 
• Low productivity 
• Poor interpersonal relationships 
• No loyalty and commitment

PREVENTION OF INCIVILITY

Improving knowledge and skill

Nursing responsibilities are important and delicate and require good skills, knowledge, and capabilities. According to the finding, improving nursing skills is another factor in  preventing incivility. Participants claim that evidence-based caring prevents incivility toward them.

Communicating effectively

Nurses require appropriate communication with others, especially with patients and their attendants (mainly one of the family members), as one of the important factors in creating incivility. Good communication skills always prevent incivility. 

Completing tasks

Nurses in hospitals have to do specific activities and are expected to present a perfect job. Nurses should complete task accurately and correctly to prevent incivility, because in most cases incivility is experienced due to failing to do their responsibility. 

Decreasing workload

High workload leads to more stress and work pressure. Nurses should have less workrelated stress and pressure to prevent WPI. Nurses' comfort is accompanied by better behavior and higher tolerance threshold and it results in prevention of incivility

Supporting nurse

Being supported is considered by nurses as an effective factor in preventing incivility. If a nurse is strongly supported, no one dares to behave impolitely. Nurses speak about their bitter experiences when they look for a support after having a conflict but if found no appropriate support is given, others courage enough to show incivility towards the nurses.

Facilitating hospitalization process

Nurses should follow principled organization of activities and convenient hospitalization process as effective factors in decreasing incivility rate towards themselves. Because unclear procedure of insurance, crowded admission line, and similar issues expose nurses to agitated attendants.

Managing attendants' presence

Family and emotional ties are really strong, and it makes family members not to leave their patient alone in the hospital. Attendants (mostly a family member) have a right to be near their patients most of the time and in most of the wards. The too many attendants' presence in the wards is found to be the major source of incivility.

Improving public views toward nurses

A disrupted public view against nurses is one of the oldest problems. Even now the public view toward nurses is not appropriate; they dare to insult them. Therefore, creating awareness to make people know the actual character, importance and position of nursing is advantageous in preventing incivility.

Conclusion

It is absolutely essential to prevent incivility in a healthcare setting. Nurses did not consider preventing incivility as an individual or mono dimensional task. They believed that to prevent this “ominous” issue, multidimensional steps must be taken, and the nurses as well as the organization or even the society and media must be unified. Nurses should try to improve their own nursing and communication skills. improve quality of nursing education, and should introduce new research evidences in caring. Publicising the real image and position of nurses in the hospitals to the public and improving public knowledge about hospitalization processes could also prevent workplace incivility.