course materials

1. Respond to each post with a minimum of 220 words each. Give
educational insights
Respond to each post with a minimum of 220 words each. Give educational insights and
feedback related to the topic.POST#1I have a person who causes conflict in the clinic that I
currently work. She is one of those people who like to constantly complain and are not
willing to put in the work to find solutions for any issues. It got to the point that she was
inciting unrest in the workplace and had gathered a following of people who fed off of her
negative. She was so loud and boisterous that it was disruptive in patient care areas. Some
of her concerns were valid but the way she approached the situation was not helpful. If
anyone disagreed with her, she was downright mean. I did not appreciate this behavior and
went to the manager to discuss the situation. When the offender was counseled, she started
crying and denied any of the behaviors. I often wonder if I would have confronted her
before going to the manager if she would have reacted differently. Her behavior has
lessened since the confrontation and her negativity is slightly less obvious. I have come to
realize that she is the type of person that will find something to complain about no matter if
all the problems seem to be resolved.Bullying in nursing is an unfortunately common event
with more than 40% of nursing reporting being exposed to behaviors that are consistent
with bullying (Weiss et al., 2019). Some of the common signs of bullying in nursing are one
person who is always given the hardest assignments and repeated criticism of a colleague in
public or private (Weiss et al., 2019). It is important to report any bullying activity in order
to ensure a safe and healthy working environment.Some of the common stressors in the
nursing workplace include short staffing, high nurse to patient ratios and workplace
incivility. While most of these things exist in all nursing environments there are ways to
cope. Nursing is a tough job and only tough people can survive. Being tough does not mean
that you take the abuse quietly it means that you can find ways to de-stress and contribute
to a positive environment. One thing that nurses can do to manage stress is to develop good
self-care activities (Evans, 2017). A person needs to have a healthy mind and body in order
to be able to overcome the stressful situations in nursing care. I think that it is important to
be able to do activities after work that help the person relax. To each person this could be
something different. I know that I love to have a little retail therapy after a particularly hard
day.POST#2I have been struggling for the last nine months with a co-worker who is actively
causing problems with not just myself, but with others in my department. I have
encountered difficult individuals before, but rarely have I encountered someone that

2. deliberately chooses to, for lack of a better word, bully other people. I have experienced
different types of personalities or styles of communication, but this is a new kind of awful. I
am glad I can vent a little bit about this in this forum; my manager has fostered this
environment and has openly shown favoritism to this person. She arrived at our
department in June of 2022 after our manager held the position open for her for over eight
months. She had to complete her contract with her previous employer before she could
start here. She had never worked for a VA hospital before, had been working as a professor
at a local university, specifically a simulation coordinator, not instructor. She has not been
at bedside for over 20 years. She has a PhD and I had expected someone with a large
amount of skill, knowledge and of course a history of professional respect. This woman has
literally lied, cried, yelled, screamed, runs to the boss with everything and has had multiple
openly passive aggressive, narcistic behaviors in meetings et al. Our manager not only
witnesses her behavior but praises her on a regular basis as if to placate her fragile
emotional state. It is disgusting to witness, and it has made me want to leave this
department that I have been in for over seven years. I, and others, dread working with her,
dread having to even come into work as the toxicity is deep. I cannot tell you how or why it
has manifested this way, it was almost immediate regardless of all attempts by myself or
others to make her feel welcome and included.Common signs of bullying include direct and
indirect actions (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019). Direct actions are name-calling, insults,
cursing, derogatory statements, inappropriate jokes, and comments (Edmonson & Zelonka,
2019). Indirect bullying is seen in passive-aggressive actions such as micro-managing,
unfair work assignments, gaslighting, withholding information or placing blame for their
actions on others (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019). Both direct and indirect bullying is
considered workplace violence (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019).According to the authors of an
article in BMC Nursing, stressors in the professional life of nursing staff include excessive
workload, patient safety concerns, lack of leadership, and compassion fatigue (Babapour et
al., 2022). Impaired work-life balance is another major stressor. as it leads most often to
burnout (Babapour et al., 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic and the additional stressors that
nurses have seen, has caused many to leave nursing altogether. Many organizations have
reviewed work-life balance strategies to improve nursing stress. New practices to reduce
nurse-patient ratios, in-house quiet rooms, employee assistance programs that cover
counseling costs, employee gyms and yoga programs (Babapour et al., 2022).