Bullying Behavior and it's Influence on Nurse Interns' Assertiveness

Abstract

Background: Nurse interns experience some challenges such as occupational stress, workplace violence and bullying while adjusting to their new roles and transitioning to clinical practice, Bullying behavior may be lead to lack of assertiveness and social competence for victims, bullies may attempt to display more extreme, difficulty engaging in cooperative decision-making with their friends, negatively affect on their performance. Aim of the study: The present study aimed to assess the influence of bullying behavior on nurse interns' assertiveness. Research design: A descriptive correlational design was used to carry out this study. Setting: The study was conducted at Ain-Shams University Hospitals. Subjects: The study subjects consisted of a purposive sample of 121 nurse interns spending their training in Ain Shams University hospitals. Tools: Data for this study were collected by using two tools namely: Negative Act Questionnaire revised (NAQ-R), and Assertiveness Inventory. Results: The findings reveal that slightly less than three quarters of nurse interns (74.3%) had a high perception level of negative act behaviors, less than one fifth of them (17%) had low perception level of negative act behaviors. Moreover, less than two thirds of nurse interns (57.3%) had low assertiveness level. Conclusion: There was a highly statistically significant positive correlation between bullying behavior and assertiveness among nurse interns. Recommendations: Raise awareness of the issue of bullying among the entire community, creating a safe and positive training environment for nurse interns.