Faculty perception of bullying in schools of nursing.

This article is a report of a study conducted to determine the prevalence of bullying among faculty members in schools or colleges of nursing. The issue of bullying of nursing faculty in the academic setting is of interest in terms of recruitment, retention, job satisfaction, and the overall quality of the work environment. This cross-sectional, descriptive study of faculty in three northeastern states of the United States was carried out in 2010. The Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R) was used to survey faculty members in schools of nursing who award a baccalaureate degree (or higher) in nursing. A total of 473 faculty members met the inclusion criteria and responded to the NAQ-R. An iterative exploratory principal components analysis with orthogonal rotation was performed. Of the original 22 items, 13 were retained to measure the experiences of negative acts in the nursing faculty workplaces. The mean total score for the 13-item instrument was 17.90 (SD = 6.07) and ranged from 13 to 56. The resulting components structure produced three clear subscales identifying the experiences of verbal abuse, physical abuse, and devaluing. The revised 13-item instrument had a Cronbach's alpha value of .88. Experiences of bullying were reported in 169 of the 473 (36%) respondents. A significant correlation was found between meeting frequency and the report of bullying (r = .18, P ≤ .001). Administrators and senior faculty were more likely than expected to be the perpetrators of bullying. If the leaders are identified as bullies, the environment cannot be perceived as supportive and healthy. These unhealthy environments may have serious consequences related to retaining nursing faculty.