More than six in 10 care professionals in the NHS have witnessed bullying in
the workplace and one in 10 now suffer similar symptoms to post-traumatic
stress disorder, research finds.
A nationwide study shows that over the last two years, 68 per cent of NHS
healthcare staff had observed bullying taking place in the course of their
work.
The research, presented to the British Association for Counselling and
Psychotherapy, also reveals that 40 per cent of the 165 individuals surveyed
had been bullied themselves.
Chartered psychologist Noreen Tehrani, who conducted the research, said it
was possible that care professionals were more vulnerable than others or were
more likely to identify bad behaviour as bullying.
Marie Cleary, HR manager at Poole Hospital NHS Trust, said the pro-active
response to bullying in the NHS was leading to a rise in the number of reported
cases. "It is an area all trusts are looking at. We needed to find out
what was happening. We knew numbers would rise slightly but that will level
out," she said.
She added that her trust has introduced more training in the area and
encloses a leaflet with every pay packet to encourage staff to report bullying
and harassment.
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