Construct clarification and contextualization of workplace bullying among nurse academics within South African Universities
Date
2021-12-15
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Abstract
Background: Numerous international publications highlight the phenomenon of workplace bullying (WPB) among nurses in clinical and university settings. The shortage of nurse faculty has been attributed to occupational stress from the multiple roles they are expected to perform (Singh, Cross, Munro, Cross & Jackson, 2020:732). The shortage of nurses internationally is attributed to several reasons and the lack of suitably educated nurse academics is considered an important factorPublications on WPB amongst nurses in South Africa has received attention, yet studies specifically on WPB of nurse faculty in South African universities when bullying is present appears to be overlooked.
Aim: To analyze the construct of WPB within nursing in general and nurse academia specifically and possibly that of the wider healthcare professional community who are employed in academic positions to contextualize the lived meaning thereof within the nurse academic environment in South African universities where professional nurses are educated, to inform the development of a situation-specific framework that describes and explains the phenomenon.
The objectives are, in phase 1, to conceptually clarify the definition of WPB, its attributes, antecedents, consequences or outcomes as found in the literature on nursing and nurse academia. In phase 2, individual interviews will be conducted with nurse academics employed in South African Universities where professional nurses are educated, to establish what their lived understanding and situated meaning is of the attributes, antecedents, consequences or outcomes are of workplace bullying in universities. In phase 3 a situation-specific framework that describes and explains the phenomenon of WPB in the context of South African nurse academia that may aid the identification, management and prevention of WPB in context.
Research setting and inclusion criteria: All South African state-owned (S.A. Nursing Council accredited) universities for the education and training of professional nurses where English is the language of instruction, will be included.
Population: The estimated population (N=398) consists of all Master’s degree prepared nurse faculty employed in South African state-owned universities for professional nursing education and training and who hold a post-graduate diploma in Nursing Education (N=22). The South African Nursing Council decrees that all nurse faculty who participate in the education and training of nurse from undergraduate level must be Master’s degree prepared.
Design: An explanatory, qualitative, sequential multi-method research design with the findings in the first phase generating considerations for further exploration in the second phase (individual interviews) will be applied. In the third phase a situation-specific framework of WPB in South African university nurse academia will be developed.
Philosophical assumptions: Neopragmatism will underpin phase one and three of this study and the Heideggerian philosophy of interpretive phenomenology will underpin phase 2.
Phase 1: Concept analysis:
A literature search will occur on the World Wide Web, including dictionaries, encyclopaedias, thesauri, books, and peer-reviewed journals via purposive sampling on websites such as CINAHL and PubMed using MeSH terms and Boolean operators. English language articles that provide a definition of workplace bullying among nurses in general and specifically among nurse academics will be retrieved. This may possibly be extended to the wider healthcare professional community who are employed in academic positions in South African universities to inform the development of a situation-specific framework that describes and explains the phenomenon. Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method will be applied.
Phase 2: All interviews will be conducted via internet-mediated technology to elicit the participants lived understanding and situated meaning of the concept WPB in South African universities where professional nurses are educated. Saldaña’s method (Miles, Huberman & Saldaña, 2020:62) will be adopted to code the data following the recording and transcription of all interviews including the field notes. To enhance the rigour, prolonged engagement with the participants with multiple interviews will occur if indicated to clarify their meaning of WPB. Member-checking and expert peer-review will occur to ensure that the researcher’s interpretation matches the participants. A thick and rich description of the phenomenon will be provided to enhance transferability.
Phase 3: The development of a situation-specific framework according to Im’s (2005:148) eight-stage strategy will be developed. This will occur following the findings from phase 1 and 2, theoretical reasoning and finally, the illustration of the link between theory, research and the context/situation. The outcome will be a narrative (conceptual framework) and also depicted as a graphic model or image.
Ethical considerations: I acknowledge that the study may pose a risk to participants due to the sensitive nature of being bullied or witnessing bullying including the socio-psychological and professional impact this may have. Therefore, the protection of the participants anonymity, secrecy and confidentiality is essential. Once ethical approval is obtained from the Health Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of Stellenbosch University and permission to collect data is obtained from the individual institutions, the study will commence. Voluntary participation means the participants will not be coerced or deceived, despite being offered a cellular phone voucher for their inconvenience and time. Anonymity, confidentiality and secrecy will be assured by allocating numerical and alphabetical codes to the interviews and informed consent will be obtained electronically in the letter of introduction prior to the interviews including the recording of the interviews and the freedom to withdraw at any stage without penalty. A witness to the voluntary consent is included and the participant will be requested to return it to the researcher via electronic scan or cellular phone image. However, due to the sensitivity of the topic, participants may feel uncomfortable confiding in a witness. The researcher will sign the consent form and email it to the participant for their records. Should the researcher become aware that the interviewee is emotionally overwrought, the interview will be terminated and the participant will be encouraged to consult with their employee support services or other services providers. The interview transcripts will be secured in encrypted files on the researcher’s personal computer and retained for five years. The participants email address and contact numbers will be destroyed immediately after the interview phase is concluded. Once the disertation has been published on the universities website, the data will be destroyed.
Description
Keywords
• Bullying AND nurs*; • Bullying AND workplace AND nurs* • Adult bullying AND nurs* • Organisational conflict AND nurs* • Mobbing AND nurs* • Horizontal violence AND nurs* • Incivility OR disruptive behaviour AND nurs* • Lateral/horizontal violence AND nurs* • Harassment AND nurs* • Victimization AND nurs* • Rude, uncivil and disrespectful behave* AND nurs* • Incivility AND nurs* • Bullying AND healthcare professionals*