“An anxious student is practicing Foley catheter insertion on a manikin in the nursing skills laboratory. The instructor rolls her eyes as the student nervously fumbles and breaks sterility.”

A less well known type of incivility.

Incivility and bullying in health care have been much discussed in recent years, as they should be. In this month’s issue, Linda Koharchik focuses on a less well known manifestation of this problem:  instructor incivility toward nursing students. This kind of vertical violence can be particularly distressing, given the fact that nursing instructors function as de facto gatekeepers for entry into practice. Student nurses can’t simply refuse to deal with them.

Eye rolling, reprimands within earshot of classmates, criticism of the student in front of the patient, and even frank bullying and intimidation are examples of instructor behaviors that some students have to cope with. It’s not hard to imagine what this kind of anxiety-provoking “guidance” can do to a student’s performance, leading to yet more abuse from the instructor.

Merely a rite of passage?

Koharchik notes that some authors have suggested that dealing with incivility is a “rite of passage” for students, one that will help them better cope with the challenges of their chosen work. But nursing students are already exposed to plenty of stress during their training, especially when […]