Reducing Hostility in Nursing

Hostility is common in every professional but even more so with nursing. A review of the literature showed that all nurses are victims of hostility, to varying degrees, at some time during their career. This includes nurse to nurse, nurse to student, nurse to manager and nurse to care provider hostility. By learning how to use positive communication, nurses may be able to reduce hostility in their work environment. Nurses may also utlitize the education module to teach other health care providers about the importance of assertive, not aggressive communication skills. King’s goal attainment theory and Knowle’s adult learning theory were used as the theoretical framework for this project. This project proposes to develop and validate a self-paced 20-minute computer-based Hostility Educational Module focusing on hostility and teaching of positive communication skills to address hostility in the work environment. This proposal also designed a pilot study for comparison with standard education for future implementation. The newly-developed educational module was presented to 5 doctoral faculty members to review and evaluate using a 10-question Likert type scale survey. Descriptive analysis of the evaluation data was completed for validation. Validation results revealed that all experts strongly agreed that the module contained appropriate information which was easy to understand. They also strongly agreed that the examples within the module were pertinent to the subject matter being taught. Most experts agreed that the module was visually appealing and easy to navigate. Revisions will be made and a plan for future pilot study implementation post-graduation will be planned. Positive social change will occur by educating veteran and novice nurses about hostility and the need to improve positive communication skills in order to reduce work place hostility. Nurses can become the change agent to reduce or eliminate the issue of hostility and/or bullying within the profession of nursing.