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Empowering nursing students: understanding and addressing bullying experiences in clinical training

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Bullying in educational environments, particularly among nursing students, is recognized as a significant challenge that can adversely affect their mental health and professional development. Therefore, this qualitative study aims to elucidate nursing students' experiences concerning the phenomenon of bullying during clinical training. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This qualitative study employed a conventional content analysis approach. Sixteen nursing students were selected using purposive sampling. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to gather data. The collected data were analyzed using the method proposed by Lundman and Graneheim (2020). MAXQDA version 0.9.5 software was utilized for data management. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 25.3 ± 3.9 years. Nursing students' experiences regarding bullying were articulated through five main themes, eleven categories, and twenty-two subcategories. The main themes included "contexts and agents of bullying," "type of bullying," "roots and causes of bullying," "characteristics of the bully," and "characteristics of the victims." The categories encompassed "educational settings," "healthcare environments," "administrative settings," "direct bullying," "indirect bullying," "clinical environment," "socio-economic factors," "psychological issues," "communication and emotional challenges," "individual challenges," and "educational challenges." CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that nursing students encounter various forms of bullying from different individuals in educational, therapeutic, and clinical settings. This issue necessitates serious attention from educational institutions and healthcare organizations. Academic institutions should proactively enhance students' abilities to cope with this phenomenon. Additionally, healthcare organizations must take the initiative to develop anti-bullying policies to mitigate this challenge. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.

Source: BMC Medical Education

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-025-06799-3

Authors: Maryam Janatolmakan, Saeedeh Piri, Mohammad Amin Nouri, Alireza Khatony

Institutions: Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Workplace Violence and Bullying

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,990