MHM Magazine

THE SILENT PANDEMIC Workplace bullying among healthcare workers has been termed “the silent pandemic”, although there has been a lot said in the past few years on the topic in the media. Workplace bullying is a global phenomenon that has been described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “a major public health problem”. There is reported prevalence, which varies from 0,3% to as high as 86,5%, depending on the investigator’s methods and definitions of bullying. Even at the low estimates, it is suggestive of a problem of great magnitude. Studies have suggested that bullying occurs more frequently in the healthcare sector than in other workplace settings. This has been theorised to be due to: the interpersonal and emotional nature of healthcare work, the hierarchical structure of healthcare institutions, and the conflicting priorities of multidisciplinary teams. There are varying reports of this, with young doctors feeling victimised by senior doctors questioning their work ethic and efficacy. This has been somewhat normalised within our healthcare sector, with many doctors having examples of this during their training years. Workplace bullying is represented by a persistent pattern of unwelcome conduct that a reasonable person in the same circumstances would consider unreasonable, and it is often enforced by those who are not of “equal strength”. The bullying includes behaviour that is belittling, intimidating, offending, humiliating, or disempowering, and has the cumulative purpose of effect of harming an employee’s health, reputation, career success, or ability to perform. While workplace bullying has been normalised to some degree, these definitions assist us to recognise that what is happening within the healthcare sector may not be as acceptable as it is set forth to be. Within a study in South Africa where experiences of workplace bullying among academics in health sciences were investigated, it was found that 58% of respondents experienced workplace bullying, with 44% having experienced it more than once, and 2/3 of respondents reporting that they had witnessed bullying. Workplace bullying within Dr Alicia Porter Psychiatrist CONFRONTING WORKPLACE BULLYING AMONG DOCTORS 16 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | 2023 | Issue 6 MHM