BULLYING IN NURSING AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
Evidence Summary UK dignity at Work Bill
Patrick COOPER-DUFFY

Bullying at Work
It relates to a lack of fairness and a abuse of power in some instances it could be
likened to that of child abuse.It is at its heart an abuse of power.

A person enters work essentially to sell their services not to have their health distroyed
and their family life ruined.This is the outcome of bullying in extreme cases the victim
may commit suicide while in many instances their health fails..
Nursing Recommendations.
The present system in operation has undermined nursing at the shop floor.These
problems run across the private and public sector and may be worse in the private
sector ref Baroness Nicolson of winterbourne(1)Further than this as 80% elderly care
beds in the private sector are paid for out of the public purse.There should be greater
control over the closure of nursing homes as part of changes in policy.

It is my belief that the present system of recruitment ,training and retaining of nurses is
inadequate.That the ending of the old GNC was a mistake as in its demise we lost the
data base and the services of substantial number of nursesRaised expectations with out
the provision of resources is in turn helpng to fuel bullying.Much of which is hidden or
can not be discussed due to social taboos or the nature of the denial mechanism.

1.The downgraing of the apprenticeship system in nursing was a major error and now
greatly adds to the problems of intergrating newly trained staff to the ward or work
areas.
2That the project 2000 system is abandoned.The apprentice ship sytem is
re-introduced including the formal cadet system .
3.The reversal of the policy regarding the SEN nurse or practical nurse should be
re-introduced as a matter of urgency.
4A substantial pay award needs to be also made to all grades at the bottom or at
patient giving.For example a newly trained nurse may start at £15,000 but a
McDonalds trainee manager is paid £18,000.
5The rates of self injury and suicide amongst nurses continues to rise and is now twice
the national average.This problem needs to be tackled effectively.
HEALTH CARE

I have read with great interest Mr Blairs efforts to campaign to save the NHS I
wonder if the senior managers and consultants like to take a pay cut while those at the
bottom received a long overdue increase.

I have been involved in many such campaigns since 1970.I recall one management
cutting exercise that involved stopping the patients english breakfast to that of the
continental Many of the patients were suffering from malnutrition on admission. This
poor diet meant many were suffering from physical and mental problems as a result. A
patient that was admitted after the mid day meal could in theory remain without a main
meal for over 24 hours. Later cost cutting exercises involved restricting patients to 2
tea bags per day and efforts to charge nurses for NHS electricity.

Salmon, clinical nursing, regrading,Nurse consultants,Clinicial Nurse Audit ,General
Management,Internal marketing later I note a certain cyclical feel.Food so vitally
important for health was earmarked for improvement.That very expensive development
has been sidelined.Some 30 years later I see the problem continues to deteriorate .


Missed NHS appointments is often given as a drain on resources.The National health
Services is supposed to be a research lead organisations.Given its senior staff has
increased somewhat and have had substantial pay awards.Why does it appear to be no
single research paper on why patients miss appointments or fail to inform.

Is it that missed opportunities for the individuals and departments to take a breather,to
catch up on paper work and its actually in the organisations interest for it to continue.I
would have thoughted given the specialist posts of performance managers and
increasing sophisticated computer softwear available that a better or more specific
answer could be appplied.

A simple solution such as punishing health users seems to ignore the obvious that
sometimes attendance involves pain,loss of face,waiting and this may have gone on for
years and likely to continue to do so.Why not cut the performance pay and bonus of
senior managers and consultants.Or judge the Prime Minister as he been urging us to
do.

But for justice to be done shouldnt both sides of the argument be put fairly.The
national health service has its specialists and indeed its image consultants,lawyers and
public relations wing.vast resources.What of the general public who advocates for
them?
Modern workhouses

From history we know that the workhouse was an administrative means of killing off the poor and
elderly. Are we any better with the the warehousing of the elderly through the residential and nursing
home care services?

This is an area that is little discussed, and the marginalization of ethnic minorities is ignored. One of
the issues that is covered up is the 30,000 people sent to nursing homes, even though they warranted
free health care under the National Health Service. This is both unfair and unlawful.

Add to this injustice the removal of psychiatric, social and rehabilitative services. Then they merely
provide warehousing spaces for the young who have become physically disabled by car and work
accidents. The same is true for head injury victims, stroke victims, the learning disabled, and among
the fragile or demented elderly. What is going to happen? 2
Here in the New Forest Mr Al Donnely closed down Fordingbridge Nursing Home as
unprofitable.Then Purchased Donwood Nursing Home and and applied to New
Forest Forest Council for a extra 10 beds for his New Forest Nursing Home.
The plight of care home owners and the shortage of beds is often highlighted.It is not
time to have a fair and more detailed discussion.In spite of claims of unprofitability
some care home companies have actually expanded and will continue to do so.Money
may not be the answer the £180 millon pounds earmarked for elderly residents has
found its way into the pockets of care home ownersfor the most part.

Critics will point to new legislation and room improvements.Howerver this is only part
of the story as the inspection and regulation of care homes is deeply flawed.3his can be
partly shown by the recent example of Westminster Health Care 4is is not an isolated
case but rather a symptom of the poor level of elderly care.

These problems could be tackled in a variety of ways for example improving
rehabilation services and a variety of supportive programmes.Further we may need to
distinguish between dementia,mental illness and the young elderly,middle elderly and
elderly elderly.Because large sums of money are to be made a rather false and single
solution to the problem is been suggested.

Budget and Nursing Implications

Nursing recruitment and figures appear to be completely adrift.Where are these good
people to come from Walk in Centres and Health Direct has depleted accident and
emmergency centres.Lowly paid health health workers will be further exploited as well
dressed suits demand high fees to design new audit tools.
Examples are often offered taken from the USA but we often only hear part of the
storyThe plight of the elderly in Florida,the medical drugs purchases in florida,the
fraud and the unethical practices are rarely touched on.A major problem of bullying or
horizontial violence is taking place in the USA this is what one American nurse says of
the matter.

“Provision of token rights, false reassurance, and ineffective laws offering
protection to nurses who must challenge dangerous systems for patient lives
are not the goals of this communication. We are in a crisis with the worst
shortage of nurses in the history of the profession. This document provides
evidence of many reasons for the shortage that the healthcare industry
doesn't want the public to hear.

For nurses in Arizona and throughout the United States. Colleagues, it's
time to do something about the horrible way things are. Telling our stories
to the public is a necessary part of creating this necessary change. It is
up to us. The industry created this shortage and they are incapable of
resolving it. For our patients, our profession, and our selves as human
beings, it is time to speak up, take control of our own profession, and stand
in unity against a battle that we can easily win--together.In Unity” 5

SOLUTIONS

End the climate of fear that has taken hold of nursing for a variety of reasons such as the
ability to hold down a job and complete a wide variety of domestic chores.The talk of
modernisation of the Health Service has become only a further tool to hasten its
demise.Ordinary people have a fear of ill health because not only may it bring death butmore
like disability,inconvenience and worry.In short end the bullying and restore therights of
labour.Stop further erosion of rights at work.

Tackle the suicide rate which deprives the nation of people that care and families of their
loved ones.
People are grateful to nurses for caring but little understand the structures that drive them to
drink,drugs,smoking and in some instances suicide.Counselling with out changes in the
dynamics and organisational structure of services is of little avail.

Money is a integral part of survival and it also shows the value that society places on the
people that undertake health work.The payment to consultantants and those that straddle
private health and the senior managers would suggest there is little thought tothose at the
bottom.Basic increases across the Board of somewhere between £1000-£2000 for all
employees.would demonstrate this worth.

The implementation of project 2000 has been a disaster.The destruction of the
apprenticeship sysystem has failed(return student nurses to the workforce). and ensurethey
are full time employees of the NHS.Re-enstate the post of State enrolled nurse tofill
immediate short term gaps.

Short term contracts,appraisal systems,clinical supervision,mentoring systems that produce
little but generate data and a waste of resources that would be better utilised by ether more
staff or simplifying the process.

Implement in full the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the elderly. Ensure that
some £80 million pounds was set aside for the training budget to bring care workers in the
private sector up to scratch.Develop a integrative policy for the young disabled,head
injuries,mental illness and l earning disability.

Put a stop to the closure of learning disability hositals which could provide essential housing
and therapeutic resources for a more enlightened processReform of the UKC to be
implemented on April Fools day shows how little thought is given to the regulation of
Nursing.This matter needs further discussion.6


1.Reader Digest Jan 001
2NEWS & LETTERS, March 2002
3.Sans everythingSans Everything, a collection of essays and articles published in
1967, was a disturbing indictment of seven hospitals by doctors, nurses and patients,
revealing conditions of neglect and incidents of ill-treatment and brutality that wereit
led to Parliamentary debates and eventually to the appointment of seven 'independent
committees of enquiry' to look into the allegations concerning the seven hospitals and
an Ombudsmen were finally set up by the National Health Service Reorganisation Act
1973
4.Westminster Health Care(Health chief backs Sunday Express probe into misery at
nursing home April 14th 002
5 Example from the USA Steven S. Lee, RN  NurseProtect@aol.comFinal text of
affidavit subject to review and editing by NLRB counsel.May 06, 2002
6letter to the Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair