Workplace Bullying and Disruptive Behaviors in Healthcare Settings

Workplace bullying and disruptive behaviours in healthcare encompass a spectrum of unprofessional conduct among staff, including persistent aggression, incivility, harassment and undermining interactions. These behaviours threaten psychological wellbeing, erode team cohesion, compromise patient safety and reduce organisational performance. Bullying often flourishes in hierarchical and high-pressure clinical environments, manifesting as overt aggression or subtle microaggressions that isolate victims and inhibit reporting. Contributory factors span individual characteristics, leadership styles, organisational culture and systemic stressors such as staffing shortages and workload intensity. Consequences extend beyond direct targets to affect care quality, staff retention and institutional reputation. Recent work emphasises the need for multi-level interventions combining individual training, policy enforcement and culture change to foster psychological safety, accountability and resilience across healthcare settings.

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Workplace Bullying and Disruptive Behaviors in Healthcare Settings publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in workplace bullying and disruptive behaviors in healthcare settings across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Workplace bullying: Repeated, sustained negative actions by colleagues or superiors that involve intimidation, humiliation or undermining behaviour.

Disruptive behaviours: Conduct that impedes effective communication or collaboration, including verbal outbursts, hostility, incivility and microaggressions.

Organisational commitment: A staff member’s emotional attachment and loyalty to their institution, reflecting willingness to remain and contribute positively.

Turnover intention: An employee’s self-reported likelihood or desire to leave their current position.

Psychological safety: A shared belief that the work environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, allowing individuals to speak up without fear of retribution.

References

1. Interventions to address unprofessional behaviours between staff in acute care: what works for whom and why? A realist review. BMC Medicine (2023).
2. The mediating role of organizational commitment between workplace bullying and turnover intention among clinical nurses in China: a cross-sectional study. BMC Nursing (2023).
3. Prevalence, Antecedents, and Consequences of Workplace Bullying among Nurses—A Summary of Reviews. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2022).