Abstract
Workplace incivility, or bullying, experienced by nurses has been shown to adversely affect nurses and the care they provide patients. As such, nurses’ roles are being challenged in the healthcare environment. Such negative outcomes exist despite the support provided to teams in which these nurses work. This research study hypothesizes that higher levels of team performance have an inverse relationship with workplace incivility or bullying. The Team and Team Dynamics survey used in this study revealed the results of 128 nurses in two medical centers in the northeast. These nurses believed that teamwork was an important facet to success in the workplace. Ninety-five percent of nurses were in agreement that a team approach is an effective method for providing quality patient care. Ninety-eight percent of respondents believed that a team approach fosters better patient care. Furthermore, 67% of respondents revealed a higher than average score when indicating the prevalence of specific constructs of leadership, trust, and communication. Thirty-one percent of respondents reported that they were bullied at lease 2-3 times per month while 53% of nurses experienced others being bullied at the same frequency. The results of the Team and Team Dynamics survey revealed a small but statistically significant correlation between levels of leadership, trust, and communication and levels of workplace incivility. An awareness and education campaign is proposed to enhance the levels of teamwork and decrease the levels of workplace incivility.|Keywords: Teamwork, workplace incivility, leadership, trust, communication