NR 500 Week 7 Assignment-Cultivating Healthful Environments

Incivility is a growing issue that nursing students and educators face in the academic environment. Speech or disrespectful or rude actions, ranging from insulting remarks to explosive behaviors, describe uncivil environments (Schaeffer, 2013). Victims of incivility may experience both physiological and psychological distress. Disruptive, uncivil behaviors in the learning environment create negative experiences and impact the students learning potential. Healthful educational environments develop a culture of positivity, collaborative teamwork, and a harmonious learning atmosphere for all involved. This paper will address the issues of incivility, and its importance to nursing, provide an example of incivility, provide strategies for creating a healthful environment, and describe practical applications for a master-prepared nurse educator.

Issues of Incivility

 Incivility in academia noted by faculty or students may be bullying, academic dishonesty, and disruptive behaviors.(Muliira, Natarajan, & van der Colff, 2017).

When left unaddressed, incivility may progress from low-risk behaviors into high-risk behaviors. Disrespect in the education environment results

in reduced learning potential, absenteeism, decreased commitment, and high attrition rates, all impacting the nursing profession (Shanta & Eliason, 2013). Incivility often invokes anxiety, anger, and self-doubt in the student. Incivility jeopardizes goal attainment and the culture of safety for students and faculty. Nursing education aims to produce empathetic, caring nurses, which may not be possible for students who experience incivility in their academic environments (Schaeffer, 2013).

NR 500 Week 7 Assignment-Cultivating Healthful Environments

Importance to Nursing

 Research shows the effects of incivility are not limited to nursing academia and often continue into the newly graduated nurses’ work environments (Palumbo, 2018). Students who experience uncivil behaviors may be confused as they are taught that nursing is founded on the principle of caring. Students and new nurses are often the most vulnerable in healthcare. The nursing academic environment should be tended as a place of growth and development for future nurses, but this is not possible when incivility is present (DeMarco, Fawcett, & Mazzawi, 2017). Students who experience abusive behaviors by faculty and other students have reported physical symptoms such as anxiety, mood disorders, gastrointestinal distress, and depression, as well as other physical ailments which may lead them to quit school. With the current nursing and nursing faculty shortage in the United States, nursing students and faculty attrition are of significant concern, and healthcare cannot afford to lose any (Schaeffer, 2013). This impacts micro-level patients as nurses are needed to enter hospitals and community centers. As students transition into practice, they have the potential to become preceptors themselves, and those who have experienced incivility may adopt the same uncivil behaviors, further perpetuating the issue. A vicious cycle ensues that may result in poor patient care and outcomes. Academic institutions must recognize the importance of incivility in education as being crucial to students, instructors, and the profession of nursing.

Storytelling

 The following is a story of a student in a diploma nursing program in the early 1980s. Diploma programs were known for being rigid with high academic standards and producing high-quality nurse graduates. This student entered her medical-surgical rotation with fear of hearing that Ms. B was the instructor. All the students knew of Ms. B’s reputation for making students cry and her ability to make students contemplate quitting the program. Ms. B used intimidation, bullying, and yelling to communicate. Despite the student being well prepared for clinical, Ms. B continued to berate her with insults during any interaction. The student refused to cry in front of the instructor, although she cried many tears out of sight. She thought of quitting but would not give Ms. B. the satisfaction of seeing another student drop out because of her. It was 18 weeks of pure torture for the student. She experienced anxiety, weight loss due to nausea and vomiting, and a lack of self-confidence. At the end of the rotation, Ms. B informed the student that if she graduated from the program, which she doubted was likely, the student would never make it as a nurse. The term incivility was not discussed back then, so the uncivil behaviors displayed by Ms. B were tolerated. It’s the way things were then. As a result of her interactions with Ms. B, the student promised never to treat another student in the mann