Incivility among Nursing Students and their Proposed Interventions

Abstract

Abstract Background: Many studies have supposed incivility as a significant problem in the workplace and academic environment. Incivility is defined as acts that violate the norms of mutual respect, thus incivility can occur to anyone in any type of relationship. More specifically, academic incivility is defined as intentional behavior aimed at disrupting or interfering with the teaching and learning processes of others. Aim: This study aimed at measuring nursing students’ perception of incivility, and identifying their proposed interventions. Design: A mixed design was used to conduct this study. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Nursing Ain Shams University, Egypt. Subjects of the study: A disproportional stratified sampling technique used to include 120 nursing students enrolled at first and fourth academic year. Data collection tool: Data were collected through Cynthia Clark’s Civility Index for Students (2013) consisted of three parts. The first Part was used to assess students’ demographic characteristics such as age, gender, academic year, the other, two parts were a self and peer evaluation of incivility, each contains two open ended qualitative questions. Results: The findings suggest that, overall; student’s perceived level incivility in the classroom was moderate, student’s perceived selves’ civility to be higher than their peer’s civility on every item, overall, the fourth year nursing students primarily had the lowest peer scores and the highest self scores in comparison to the first year students. The qualitative data was analyzed for major themes. For individual personal growth, decreasing gossip, improving communication, and increasing assertiveness were the most frequently recommended areas. The major themes for peer growth were decreasing gossip, improving communication, maintaining mutual respect. Conclusion: according to the findings of this study there are statistically Significant analysis were found such as an increase in perception regarding peer incivility from first to fourth years students and a higher perception regarding self civility verses peer civility. Recommendations: Future research would also need to include other nursing faculties and study them over time to have a level of comparison as to the effectiveness of interventions implemented. Key words: Nursing students, incivility, and proposed interventions