Perception of mobbing among nurses in the on-call sector

Abstract

Introduction: Mobbing or workplace harassment is a set of unacceptable behaviors and practices, aimed at, causing or likely to cause physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm, and includes gender-based violence and harassment. Objective: To describe the perception of the nursing staff regarding mobbing or harassment at work in the on-call sector of the Hospital General de Agudos Bernardino Rivadavia of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires from June to August 2019. Methods: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted in the on-call sector of the Bernardino Rivadavia General Acute Hospital of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires from June to August 2019, the sample consisted of 40 nurses. Results: In the present study, the female sex predominated with 70%, and nurses between 20 and 29 years of age with 37%. Of the total number of respondents, 50% had undergraduate nursing education, either at university and/or tertiary level. Forty percent acquired knowledge about the characteristics of mobbing through secondary and tertiary sources. 65% of the respondents reported that they felt that they had suffered some form of mobbing in their place of study or work. Of the total respondents 60% have regular knowledge about the characteristics of mobbing. Conclusions: After the analysis of the results described above, it is concluded that although nurses have knowledge of mobbing, it is still insufficient.  By virtue of this study, it is imperative in the construction of fair, inclusive, democratic and equitable social systems, mobbing should be made visible as a problem, identified and actions should be taken to eliminate it.