It’s the middle of a busy shift. A newer nurse approaches a more experienced colleague to clarify a medication order before administration. The response is brief and edged with irritation: “You should already know that.” The exchange occurs within earshot of other staff members. No one intervenes. For the remainder of the shift, the nurse hesitates before asking additional questions.
In isolation, moments like this can be easy to dismiss. Healthcare environments are fast-paced, and stress is common. Not every tense interaction constitutes bullying. However, when patterns of belittling remarks, exclusion, public criticism or dismissive leadership behaviors recur over time, they can erode psychological safety and team cohesion.
Workplace bullying in nursing has been documented for years, and is often targeted at newly licensed nurses. It can have negative effects on nurses’ physical and psychological health, can decrease morale and can contribute to staff turnover.
In this article, examine how bullying in nursing manifests in clinical settings, why it persists and what evidence-informed strategies nurses and healthcare organizations can use to address it.
What is nurse bullying, and what does it look like?
Nurse bullying refers to repeated, targeted behavior that humiliates, intimidates, or undermines a nurse in the workplace.
It’s worth distinguishing between high-pressure stress—which is an unavoidable part of clinical environments—and targeted bullying. Stress is situational. Bullying is personal, repetitive, and directed. The clinical bully often uses their power within the workplace hierarchy to avoid accountability.
Often, the bullying is subtle rather than a dramatic confrontation. You might be excluded from team conversations, receive deliberately vague instructions, have your clinical judgment publicly questioned or be the subject of gossip that your manager participates in rather than shuts down.
Bullying between nurses is referred to as “lateral bullying” while bullying between supervisors and subordinates is called “vertical bullying.” For example, one nurse on Sermo describes a head nurse who insulted their appearance and professional conduct in front of patients and colleagues, and threatened written warnings without any contractual basis.
You may have heard the phrase, “nurses eat their young,” shorthand for the way experienced nurses sometimes “initiate” newcomers: withholding mentorship, setting up new hires to fail or making them feel unwelcome until they either toughen up or leave. One nurse on Sermo shared that they experienced this firsthand: “I was not mentored or taught properly. The manager joined in gossiping about me instead of developing me professionally.”
Other Sermo members have recounted similar experiences. An ICU nurse describes driving to work in tears—and being told she needed to develop “tough skin,” while another member encountered bullying that they linked to ageism.
Why nurse bullying can become a patient safety issue
Bullying in nursing doesn’t stay between colleagues. When nurses feel intimidated, they may avoid speaking up—and in clinical settings, silence can be dangerous.
Research suggests that workplace bullying targeted at nurses may be linked to adverse patient outcomes. A nurse who fears ridicule or retaliation is less likely to question a physician’s order, flag an anomaly or escalate a concern in time.
There’s also a structural consequence worth naming: toxic cultures drive nurses out. Research suggests that nurses who are bullied are more likely to leave their position or the profession, which could exacerbate an ongoing nursing shortage. When experienced nurses leave and new ones don’t stay, patient-to-nurse ratios climb and care quality may drop as the remaining staff are stretched further. The cycle feeds itself.
Tactical responses to deal with nurse bullying professionally
Nurses can use concrete strategies to address bullying before it requires formal escalation.
- Stay grounded in your clinical competence. “If you stick to your principles and professional conduct, eventually you find your footing and become assertive in doing right,” advises an HIV/AIDS nurse on Sermo.
- Use cognitive rehearsal. This evidence-based technique involves mentally preparing responses to anticipated bullying behaviors. Practice calm, direct replies (such as “That comment is not appropriate” or “I’d appreciate feedback in private”).
- Know your policies before you need them. “Venting your grievances should be guided by knowledge of the workplace policies,” offers a nurse on Sermo. Understanding what your employer defines as misconduct—and what the formal reporting process looks like—gives you a framework to work within.
- Address the behavior directly (when safe to do so). A calm, factual statement of how a behavior affected you can sometimes be enough to shift the dynamic.
When direct strategies haven’t worked, or when you aren’t receiving adequate support from the workplace structure, reporting to HR is appropriate.
It can be nerve-wracking to report bullying, but in many jurisdictions, laws and employer policies prohibit retaliation against employees who report concerns in good faith, particularly those related to patient safety. Whistleblower protections and anti-retaliation policies exist specifically to protect staff who come forward.
Dealing with physician-to-nurse intimidation
Bullying between nurses is one problem. Intimidation from physicians is another, and the power gap makes it harder to navigate.
The authority gradient between physicians and nurses is steep, and in some hospital cultures, it’s treated as immovable. Nurses may feel they have no recourse when a doctor speaks to them dismissively, questions their competence in front of patients or responds to clinical concerns with contempt.
Potential channels for addressing this may include chief nursing officers (CNOs), medical directors, HR departments or institutional professionalism committees, depending on the organization’s structure. Bringing documented concerns to a CNO, or requesting that a medical director address a physician’s behavior routes the issue through the appropriate hierarchy without requiring nurses to confront physicians directly. This can help to maintain a safe, functional workplace—one where nurses can raise clinical concerns without fear.
The importance of documentation
Documentation is one of the most practical tools available to nurses experiencing bullying. It creates a factual record that’s harder to dismiss.
Write down every incident as soon as possible after it happens—date, time, location, what was said or done, who was present. Keep this log somewhere private and separate from work systems. A surgical nurse on Sermo describes sending a written report that was BCC’d to her supervisor specifically to counter a false accusation, creating a paper trail that made the allegation unsustainable.
Another Sermo member outlines a clear escalation path: “Document every bullying activity with time and date in a diary. Gather evidence. Discuss with the person in front of your manager, then send a follow-up email. If nothing changes, send a detailed account to HR, Occupational Health, and your union.”
Documentation can aid nurses who worry about being perceived as “difficult.” A written record shifts the conversation from subjective complaint to factual account—and that shift can affect how seriously HR or leadership take a report.
The bottom line for nurses going through bullying
Bullying is never acceptable, regardless of how normalized it has become in certain units or specialties. What helps, consistently, is finding allies who can validate your experience. “Most places I worked at had mentors and usually helped with such issues,” writes a nurse on Sermo. “So you had a buddy you could talk to.”
Nurses entering the profession now are less willing to accept abuse as “part of the job.” Patient safety depends on providers; research suggests that nurses who feel respected, supported, and heard make fewer errors, stay longer and provide better care. Building that kind of culture is a leadership responsibility. But advocating for it and refusing to normalize anything less is something every nurse can do.
If you’ve been through bullying, you don’t have to process it alone. By joining Sermo’s nursing community you can share your experiences and access a global network of healthcare professionals who support each other.
