Bullying in the Health Sector: A Study of Bullying of Nursing Students

Workplace bullying is a phenomenon that, although it has existed for decades, has only recently begun to be studied and understood. Although the international literature points towards a strong occurrence of bullying amongst nurses, there is very little New Zealand-based research. This article, therefore, examines the prevalence of bullying of nursing students while on their clinical placement from their tertiary institution and documents the experiences and perceptions of those nursing students who have been bullied. It also gauges the perceptions of students who have never experienced bullying. The results of the study outlined in the article clearly show that bullying is a problem for nursing students and that a high percentage of the bullies were senior nurses. Most disturbing was that most nursing students were aware of the patterns and implications of bullying.