Free Essay About How To Improve Civility In Nursing Education Through Empowerment

Introduction

Academic incivility such as verbal abuse threatening behaviors, intimidation, and physical violence in Nursing Education is very common now and affects the faculty students, and the learning environment. According to The American Nurse, incivility happens because of the heavy workload of the students, which consist of the following: demanding workloads, meeting deadlines, juggling responsibilities, working more than 24 hours in the hospital, competing for grades, and worrying about patients. Despite that, faculty and students should work together to lessen (if not stop) incivility in nursing education and we find ways to do that in this assignment. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of the issue of incivility, prompt reflection, and consider more productive behaviors to increase civility, collaboration and collegiality.

Addressing Incivility Through Empowerment

On the article "Improving Civility through Empowerment", the authors are finding ways on how to prevent incivility on the nursing students and the nursing faculty so that students can learn and faculty can teach in a calm and less stressful environment. Incivility affects both the students and the teachers and "reduces the quality of the experience of the participants" (Shanta, Eliason, 2015). Instead of doing good and have the energy to study, students will be more stressed in a (should I say) a more stressful and demanding environment---and vice versa. Due to their workload and other things that nursing students do, they become rude and perform  disruptive behaviors such as challenging behaviors, dominating class, side conversations, texting and cell phone use, and complaining about the assignments in class. No matter how simple or how complex the incivility is, the authors of the articles are addressing this and are making ways to improve incivility, with one of them using the empowerment model. The aim of the study is to lessen (if not stop) incivility among nursing students and faculty as well as the nurses in the medical profession and to find ways on how to create civility. Incivility is experienced by the faculty from students and fellow faculty members as well as the students from fellow students and faculty members, so all the more that the authors are finding ways to prevent incivility from happening. At the start of the study, the participants are the nursing students and the nursing faculty who have experienced different ways of incivility. Students will come from different years while the faculty are those who teach different subjects. As incivility is pretty common in Nursing Education, the researchers will pick participants at random as there is a big chance that they will get those who have experienced simple and complex acts of incivility. The researchers used the empowerment model as a framework for the study that is also based on the article. The empowerment model  is aligned with Kanter's theory of structural empowerment where the provision of resources, support, and opportunities for learning is implemented to accomplish personal and professional goals. When you use empowerment in  incivility, you can promote self-efficacy, competency, and having meaning in one's existence. It is considered both an outcome and a process where its components can be used to empower the students' development  in clinical judgment and advocacy for their patients. This model will be used as an evidence-based guide to prevent incivility among students and faculty. Some of the concepts that will be used in the study are: communication, collegiality, autonomy, and accountability.

What Does Civility Mean to Me?

Civility for me means treating each other well despite the stressful environment that we have. In fact, in a stressful environment like the nursing profession, people should emit positive vibes instead of negative because, why would you add more stress and incivility in a toxic environment, right? Civility should be about helping and encouraging each other instead of bullying, threatening, or abusing the nurses and its faculty. For me, it is about showing respect towards each other and making that person feel valued and loved through communication and teamwork. In other words, instead of dealing things through disruptive and rude behavior, we should settle things in a positive way where there is mutual respect and caring.

Civil Characteristics and Behaviors

Civility need not to be so overdone because there are simple ways as well to show civility towards other nursing students and faculty. For instance, if a nursing student is having a problem with the grade that the teacher has given to her, instead of acting rude in front of the classmates, the student should talk to the faculty member concerned in private so that it can be discussed clearly. Other civil behaviors would include: helping each other in the demanding workload and in meeting deadlines, listening more than talking to show respect to others' opinion, a simple thank you being enough, and more that will show that you respect the person and what he/she does. Civility can definitely give a positive effect on the learning environment for students and teachers, so it should be practiced more in the Nursing Education as well as in the profession.

Acts of Incivility

For others it might be simple, but for me, bullying is an act of incivility that should not be taken lightly---especially to the new students or new nurses. I have witnessed various incidences of bullying the new ones as a way to initiate or test them, but sometimes they go too far and it affects the psychological being of the person being bullied---especially if they are continuous. They affect of nurse bullying can be devastating to everyone and results to the following: "reduction in motivation, increase risk of making an error at work resulting in increased patient risk, and reduction in the nurse’s commitment to the organization" as bullying can increase stress, fear, and burnout (Edmonson, Allard, 2013). I am totally against bullying and I hope something can be done about this because the last thing we need are the nurses leaving the profession because of bullying incidences.

Ways to Increase Civility

The most important way in increasing civility is communication between students and faculty. When both parties communicate with each other, issues can be resolved well and incivility can be prevented. In fact, communication is part of the empowerment model that the researchers are using as their framework for the study.  It provides guidance for both the faculty and students towards learning. It also an "expression of the underlying value that the faculty has for the students and vice-versa" (Shanta, Eliason, 2015). Another way to increase civility is respect for each other and the opinions. If you the students and the faculty have  respect for each other, there is no room for rude behavior and everything can be dealt in a positive way. In relation to this, there should be collaboration on both parties so they can help each other in times of need and stress won't be too much as when there is incivility.

Conclusion

Indeed, incivility is very common in the Nursing Education and this should be addressed immediately before it truly affects almost all of the students and the nurses. This should not be taken lightly as it will obviously take a toll on the psychological being of the nurses. I hope that the empowerment model will help in preventing the incivility among nurses and faculty members. It will guide educators and maintain and civil environment and have effective approaches to unacceptable behaviors

References

Trossman, S. ( 2015, April 5). Toward civility. The American Nurse. American Nurses Association. Retrieved from
http://www.theamericannurse.org/index.php/2014/02/27/toward-civility/
Shanta, L., Eliason, A. (2015, March 19). Application of an empowerment model to improve civility in nursing education. Report Information from ProQuest.
Edmonson, C., Allard, J. (2013). Finding meaning in civility: Creating a "No Bullying Zone". Clinical Scholars Review. Vol. 6. No. 2. Springer Publishing Company. pp. 131-137.