Workplace violence and incivility negatively impact nurses’ personal and professional lives. Nurses experience decreased job satisfaction, burnout and higher intent to leave the organization (Armstrong, 2018; Anusiewicz et al., 2019; Crawford et al., 2019). Nurses also suffer physically, experiencing anxiety, depression and physical illness (Shorey & Wong, 2021). Patients and health organizations are also negatively impacted by workplace violence and incivility. Nurses can become distracted from their work, increasing the likelihood of errors occurring and jeopardizing patient safety (Armstrong, 2018; Shorey & Wong, 2021).

For the newly licensed graduate nurse, workplace violence and incivility are factors that can influence their intent to stay at an organization and ultimately impact their decision to leave the nursing profession altogether (Anusiewicz et al., 2019). Studies have shown that incivility occurs most commonly during the first year of practice, highlighting the importance of addressing these issues at the early stages of a nurse’s career (Anusiewicz et al., 2019). This is commonly due to the newly licensed graduate nurses’ primary focus being on building their skills and confidence in clinical practice as a nurse and an overall lack of belonging and experience as the new employee on the unit (Anusiewicz et al., 2019). Furthermore, when newly licensed graduate nurses experience workplace violence and incivility at the early formative stages of their careers, their experiences can potentially normalize these inappropriate behaviors, causing a perpetual cycle of workplace toxicity (Crawford et al., 2019). Therefore, it is imperative that healthcare organizations take strategic steps toward addressing workplace violence and incivility early in the graduate nurses’ careers to combat the negative effects of these behaviors. By doing so, organizations can support graduate nurses in building a sense of belonging and encourage them to stay in the nursing profession altogether.

The nurse residency program utilizes content that aligns closely with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) curriculum to address workplace violence and incivility. The curriculum utilizes evidence-based recommendations and practices to provide graduate nurses with tools and resources to address workplace violence and incivility. The content includes definitions of workplace violence and incivility and provides signs and symptoms so graduate nurses can identify and acknowledge when they may be experiencing it. Additionally, the nurse residency program provides key terms, phrases and role-playing scenarios to identify opportunities to have respectful conversations surrounding their experiences. The role-playing component allows graduate nurses to put learned content into action. From an organizational standpoint, graduate nurses are educated on policies and programs that address workplace violence and incivility. Graduate nurses are introduced to other organizational resources such as the Workplace Environment Council. The Workplace Environment Council acts on both a local and system level to address workplace issues and to ensure a healthy work environment exists hospital wide. Content and subject matter experts within the organization share how HMH expects issues of workplace violence and incivility to be addressed. Finally, graduate nurses are empowered to utilize the Transparency and Accountability in Patient Safety (TAPS) system to report issues related to workplace violence and incivility.

Graduate nurses should seek support from their fellow peers, preceptors, mentors and unit leadership to create and establish a positive work environment that has zero tolerance for workplace violence and bullying (Anusiewicz et al., 2019; Crawford et al., 2019). Nurses supporting graduate nurses should perform regular assessments and evaluations of their unit, practices, and processes to ensure the environment is supportive of every nurse (Crawford et al., 2019). The combined collaborative effort of the team can help create a healthy work environment for all on the unit.