Workplace bullying for nurse in South Australia
Work place bullying is an overwhelming concern all over the world. The rate at which bullying occurs at the work place is very high and what makes it more sad is the fact that it is grossly underreported. Work place bullying can be described as a conflict that occurs between people working together and lasts for a long period. Bullying is any form of activities and practices that are focussed to one or more employees which are all undesirable for that person. These actions are normally conducted deliberately or instinctively but they cause disgrace, fault and anguish which affect job enactment and end up triggering an unfriendly working habitation for the targets.
There are many reasons why people get bullied, but what is intriguing is the reason as to why some people are more prone to bullying as compared to others. The social identity theory argues that in order for people to achieve positive self-image, they use the process of self-categorization. This is where they group themselves into two groups, there is the in or out group sets and people compare these groups thus upholding constructive personalities if they favour the in-set above the out-set (Haslam & Reicher, 2006). Nurses tend to have a large share of bullying which includes; physical violence, verbal abuse, sexual and racial harassment. During the last two decades in South Australia, nurse bullying has appeared to be a popular topic, most of which goes unreported due to awkwardness that the targets have to tolerate and also as a result of distress (Sauer & McCoy, 2018).
The nurses that experience bullying at the work place often tolerates many bodily and emotional challenges for example high tension, low self-worth, sleep disorders, nervousness and substantial decline in their work input (Hartina et al., 2018). The fact that nurses devote the prime time of their day at the hospitals working, it is definite that exposure to harassment conducts unfavourably distresses patients care and work execution (Vessey et al., 2009). The targets of work place emotional violence find social associations to be difficult both in and out of the work place. They also have a tendency to experience privation of backing in the work place since there is the attitude of non-disclosure that has been embraced by many nurses which shields the culprits (Sauer & McCoy, 2018).
All nurses are eligible to operating in a non-violent setting, without any occurrences of violence and they have the freedom to make their own choices. Work place oppression disturbs patient outcome, upsurges work-related tension and aggravates turnover of employees (Hartina et al., 2018). In South Australia, the subject of work place harassment for nurses is getting more consideration, though there is a worry that the republic is till dragging at the back as compared to the other first world nations in regard to the issue. The threats for clinical faults are in elevation when the nurses have signs of post-traumatic tension syndrome as a consequence of mistreatment (Yildirim, 2009). This sources the medical care sector to significantly agonize because of a reduction in nursing efficiency and also the loss of capable nurses. Harassment for most of the nurses comes from their supervisors, which sources more hurt for the targets as likened to a bullying from a fellow staff affiliate because in this case the nurse does not have any one to report the violence to. One of the programs that help to ensure that nurses are safe at their work places in South Australia is the SafeWork SA program.
SafeWork SA Program
SafeWork SA is an Australian Government agency that was established in the year 2009. The program aims at helping ensure that the work place is healthier and safer for employees most especially in the health care sector (SafeWork SA, 2019). It helps to create a national consciousness of the scopes and significances of work related calamities and grievances and it endorses the aim of basic shield for all employees in conventionality with South Australian’s labour ethics. SafeWork SA jurisdiction falls under OHSA (occupation health, safety and welfare) legislation, as the government agency that plays a key role in addressing bullying in South Australia (SafeWork SA, 2019). This includes the investigation of the complaints of work place bullying through the use of its Occupation Health and Safety (OHS) inspectorate functions. The organization is normally subsidised by Commonwealth together with the national government and it has fifteen associates who collaborate with the agency employees to guarantee that purposes of the tactical and effective strategies are reached (SafeWork SA, 2019). The memberships include a sovereign chairperson, nine associates who from the commonwealth, two associates that characterize the comforts of workers, two others who characterize the wellbeing of the managers and lastly the chief executive officer (SafeWork SA, 2019). The associates come together at least three intervals every year to discuss matters relating to the program.
As a part of its everyday operations, SafeWork SA obtains grievances of workplace harassment, where it comportments inquiries of these problems in harmony with the necessities of OHSW Act of 1986 (Government of South Australia, 2019). This act allows SafeWork SA OHS examiners to denote workplace bullying grievances to the Industrial Relations Commissions (IRC) of South Australia for appeasement or arbitration where they have motive to trust that the problem can be resolved. SafeWork is able to arraign a proprietor or a worker for going against any of OHS provisions. SafeWork SA also provides education, support and information to employees, employers and the community in general on all aspects of work place bullying (Harris-Roxas et al., 2011).
SafeWork employs inspectors who are given the role of responding to and investigating bullying complaints. SafeWork SA contemplates that workplace harassment better handled through the looking at the breach that subsists amid the administration of Industrial Relations (IR) and OHS matters and that a more all-inclusive tactic to intimidation matters may be mandated (SafeWork SA, 2019). This is because, although oppression offers an OHS danger to the plaintiff’s emotional wellbeing, the assessment and inquiry of the grievance needs ability set dissimilar to those tangled in dealing with physical dangers. Bullying is an issue that falls on the side of IR because it focuses on human resource and the basic management of people. It is hence logical for bullying to be handled in a manner that involves objection measures that are more thoroughly associated with conduct management performances (Harris-Roxas et al., 2011). To be able to manage the complications in evaluating psychosocial threats, it is vital for inspectors dealing with harassment criticisms to have good working familiarity of the aspects that steered to and intensified the probability of intimidation in the work place.
SafeWork SA statistics of workplace bullying
Since the year 2006, the number of work place bullying files by the SafeWork SA has been steadily increasing. In the year 2011, the number of new files that were opened grew to 165 and it has continued to increase more so with most of the victims being nurses (Harris-Roxas et al., 2011). The sad fact about all this is that the statistics show that most of the work place bullying files rarely reach the stage of being considered for prosecution meaning that most of the bullying perpetrators continue to enjoy their freedom as they continue to conduct more actions of bullying. This is a consideration of the intricacies of dealing with harassment since it is habitually problematic to institute whether or not the supposed conducts founded workplace harassment or they were somewhat rational activities conducted by an employer (Harris-Roxas et al., 2011). Though trial mandates in respect to workplace harassment have been organized by the SafeWork SA in the past, there are no tribunals that have been followed in South Australia even in the current day.
SafeWork SA current acts
SafeWork SA administers the OHSW Act which regulates the prevention of bullying in workplaces in accordance with sections 19, which requires employers to always ensure that they provide their employees with a harmless working setting and this relates to all zones which comprise the worker’s mental wellbeing. The other one is section 21, which necessitates a worker to take sensible caution to evade unfavourably upsetting the fitness or well-being of another individual over an act or oversight at work (Government of South Australia, 2019). SafeWork SA offers elimination rations, which indicates that sensible directorial action engaged in a sensible way by a manager in relation to the engagement of a worker is not deliberated as impending within the scope of establishment. SafeWork SA permits for an inquiry procedure by an examiner to be steered once a grievance has been established (Harris-Roxas et al., 2011). And it also offers for the transfer of a grievance, if no resolution is made after sensible phases have been engaged by the two groups to the commission for deed within five days after the problem has been raised.
In section 55A, SafeWork SA definition of bullying as ‘inappropriate behaviour’ play a great impact on the manner in which bullying cases are handled. It acts as a support for defensive processes to be reputable in work residences as well as providing an intensified consciousness amid employers and workers of the concerns of unsuitable workplace conduct (Harris-Roxas et al., 2011). All the same, the usage of constitutional description of intimidation does not require a steady appraisal of the provision set that mistreatment is an emerging zone of regulation.
Education and support services provided by SafeWork SA
SafeWork SA has come up with a number of strategies to help provide education and sustenance in order to help avert and also counter workplace oppression. There is a help centre where SafeWork SA is able to receive and respond to enquiries or complaints from the members of the public in regard to work place bullying which can be done through telephone call, inscription or even face to face (SafeWork SA, 2019). SafeWork also offers information conferences on workplace harassment which are steered by their proficient employees to any organization that requests them to. SafeWork also has a website which features information on bullying and it includes practical guides for both the managers and workers on ways to prevent and deal with harassment cases at the work place (SafeWork SA, 2019). All this are effective strategies that can greatly help eradicate cases of bullying at the work place, most especially for nurses.
Conclusion
SafeWork SA is effective in helping to show the negative impacts that bullying has on the society and the manner in which laws that have been put in place are ineffective because they fail to consider some important elements that contribute to increased bullying. SafeWork SA always expects workplace bullying policies and procedures to be developed and adhered to by the employers. It ensures that any policies that are developed are in consultation with the staff and that they include both the prevention and resolution strategies of work place bullying in order to help reduce bullying at the workplace. Some of the limitations that have been detected by SafeWork SA in regard to laws dealing with bullying are in relation to the measure of what truly constitutes systematic bullying behaviour. SafeWork SA implies that there is need for the definition of the term bullying at the work place to be broadened in order to be able to cover some isolated incidences that are not covered by the law. The law at the moment requires the bullying behaviour to be repeated and systematic in order to be considered as bullying and it hence does not encompass to those secluded and possibly severe occurrences. Most of the bullying cases that are not prosecuted in South Australia are all because they did not fall within the range of endowment and this includes cases where the alleged bullying situation was severe but it was not recurrent.
The arguments by SafeWork SA are reasonable and very true, in the case of bullying for nurses. There are nurses that experience violence at the work place once, for instance once could be raped while at the work place. This is an event that is not likely to happen again because they will always be cautious. It is however unfair that the victim does not get legal justice because it was a time incidence. This is likely to lead to more cases of violations for other nurses who will not bother to make a complaint because they are afraid that their case will not be heard all because it is a onetime incidence.
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