Antecedents and Consequences of New Graduate Nurses' Experiences of Workplace Mistreatment

Read, Emily Alicia

Saturday, April 13, 2013: 9:00 AM

Emily Alicia Read, RN, BScN, MSc
Nursing, Western University, London, ON, Canada
Heather K. S. Laschinger, RN, PhD
Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

Learning Objective 1: see that bullying and incivility of new graduate nurses in the workplace have similar causes and consequences.

Learning Objective 2: identify potential strategies to prevent workplace mistreatment targeting new graduate nurses.

Background and Purpose: Given the impending nursing shortage and high turnover intentions of nurses within the first two years of practice, recent reports of workplace mistreatment targeting new graduate nurses are unsettling. Coworker and supervisor incivility and bullying negatively influence nurses’ work and health however it is unclear whether these forms of workplace mistreatment have similar precipitating factors and outcomes. This study examines an exploratory model of antecedents and outcomes of three forms of workplace mistreatment. Methods: Secondary data analysis was performed on data from a larger study of new graduate’s worklife. From a random sample of 709 registered nurses newly registered with the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) within the last two years, 342 nurses responded (48% response rate). Participants were asked to complete a study questionnaire which was mailed to their home address between July and October of 2010. The study was approved by the research ethics board at Western University. Findings: Workplace incivility and bullying had similar antecedents including empowerment, a sense of community, authentic leadership, and psychological capital. All three forms of workplace mistreatment were significantly related to all outcomes except personal job efficacy. Bullying had stronger correlations than incivility to all significant outcome variables. Conclusions: New graduate nurses’ experiences of these three types of workplace mistreatment have similar precipitating factors and outcomes although bullying appears to have stronger negative effects. Our results suggest that authentic leadership and empowering work environments that foster the personal growth of new graduate nurses may be promising strategies for preventing and reducing workplace mistreatment targeting new graduate nurses, thereby contributing to the sustainability of the nursing workforce.

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