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Student Midwives 'Bullied By Senior Nurses with Gang-Culture Mentality'
(Source: Creative Commons)
Daily Mail UK
July 25, 2009
Britain’s next generation of midwives is being bullied by senior nurses with a ‘gang culture’ mentality, a new survey has found.
Student midwives say they are belittled and shouted at in front of staff if they ask for help – and that the abuse is ruining their self-esteem and confidence.
More than half those questioned in the survey said they had been badly treated in their workplace.
One said: ‘There is a gang culture within the unit, and sometimes a midwife – for whatever reason – has just not been accepted by the midwives and has, through bitchy behaviour, suffered and left the unit.’
They complained of being intimidated and excessively criticised, saying their work was belittled, their competency was questioned and their skills and efforts were undervalued.
Students said they were most often bullied by another midwife, usually their mentor or ward sister, although university lecturers and tutors were also blamed.
‘I think that some midwives view it as an initiation or to test how tough you are,’ one student midwife told the academics from the University of Ulster who carried out the survey.
Another described it as a power-trip for the senior nursing staff.
The dossier, compiled at the end of a five-year survey, warned that action must be taken to curb the bullying.
It said: ‘All qualified midwives should examine their own behaviour and endeavour to relate in a more collegial manner with students who are, after all, the future hope of the midwifery profession.’
The study recommended student midwives be taught how to deal with bullying and how to offer support to colleagues.
It called for all qualified midwives to examine their own behaviour, particularly when dealing with student midwives. It also recommended that the nature of bullying, and how it happened in practice, should be added to curricula for midwife education.
One of the authors, Professor Marlene Sinclair, said the health service and its supporters ‘need to face up to the fear that surrounds this phenomenon and take a proactive approach, which clearly labels bullying as a behaviour that is not acceptable within 21st Century midwifery’.
A total of 164 student midwives were questioned in the survey, a small sample.
A spokesman for the Royal College of Midwives said: ’We are aware that bullying exists within the profession and the NHS.
‘We work closely with everyone in the profession to try and eradicate this.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1201384/Student-midwives-bullied-senior-nurses-gang-culture-mentality.html#ixzz0M8Jl9ZTp
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catmurray
21 days ago
2 comments
Curious: Are CNA's considered Nurses? If someone asks: "Are you a nurse?" because they see me wearing scrubs, I never know how to answer correctly. Any thoughts?
jforbes
24 days ago
2 comments
That's awful!
Reflexologist
24 days ago
6 comments
As an R.N., I have experienced "bullying" in different hospitals. I believe this is a global, and not a local incident.
Nurses are their own WORST enemies. Nurses cry that they are overworked, and they resent the mandatory overtime, yet, when the hospital attempts to correct this situation, by bringing in "new" nurses, the "old-timers" belittle, degrade, and embarrass the newcomers.
Nurses must learn to treat newcomers with RESPECT!!!!
I think that Mentors or Nurse trainers should go through a RIGOROUS training, to ensure that they will answer their students' questions with RESPECT, and try to remember, THEY too, were once "BEGINNERS" in their specialty.
R.N., BSN, Pennsylvania
PhillyXTech
about 1 month ago
388 comments
I can speak to this. Many of the nurses where I work treat other nurses, nurses aids, tach aids, and other support staff, including Radiologic Technologiests like this.
They get treated like crap by the doctors so they turn around and take their frustrations out on other staff.
In addition there seems to be a teritorial mentality.
If you suggest something, or ask something that seems like it is outside the absolute minimum requirements for your scope of practice to know then you are seen as questioning their authority and out come the claws.
Heaven forbid you suggest that a patient going for an MRI should not have metal snaps over the anatomical area to be scanned.
We need to re-evaluate how we operate as a healthcare team, put asside all the petty distinctions in job title, years on the job, and training, and re-learn that our focus should always be on how we provide the best service to our patients.