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Up to one in six nurses has been bullied, a report by the Royal College of Nursing has found.
A survey of 4,500 nurses found that 17 per cent reported having been harassed in the previous 12 months by another member of staff, with the proportion rising to 29 per cent among respondents from ethnic minorities. A third of those affected intended to leave.
“Healthcare organisations must introduce and implement effective anti-harassment programmes,” said Christine Hancock, RCN general secretary. “Nurses need to be able to work free from fear.”
Gary Theobald, head of personnel at Basildon and Thurrock NHS Trust, said HR managers cannot rely on grievance procedures to deal with bullying because evidence is difficult to establish.
“Each case has to be looked at on its own merits if someone has a relationship with a superior and feels he or she is being intimidated,” he said.
“In these cases quite often mundane comments take on additional meaning, so it is very hard for the individual to say, ‘There is the evidence’.
“It is usually long-term, covert and there are no witnesses.”
Marie Cleary, HR manager at Poole Hospital NHS Trust, said the hospital does not use the grievance procedure for the same reasons.
“The process that we adopt is always one of working with the individuals to look at the reasons for the behaviours and look at replacing negative behaviour with what we would expect. It is a case of drawing the line but educating staff.”
The trust has held training on awareness of bullying and urges staff to report incidents.
Many NHS trusts have been prompted to address the issue since protecting staff from assaults and poor treatment - more typically from members of the public - has become a priority after the Government set out its national HR strategy for the NHS in 1997.
By Philip Whiteley
