Association between Workplace Bullying, Job Stress, and Professional Quality of Life in Nurses: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Workplace bullying affects workers’ lives, causing several mental and physical health problems and job-related issues. Therefore, a summary of the evidence on the consequences of workplace bullying on workers’ lives is essential to improve working conditions. The literature lacks systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the association between workplace bullying and job stress and the professional quality of life of nurses. Thus, we aimed to quantitatively summarize the data on the association between workplace bullying, job stress, and professional quality of life. We performed our study in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines. The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42024495948). We searched PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Cinahl, and Web of Science up to 4 January 2024. We calculated pooled correlation coefficients and 95% confidence intervals [CI]. We identified nine studies with a total of 3730 nurses. We found a moderate positive correlation between workplace bullying and job stress (pooled correlation coefficient = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.29 to 0.39). Moreover, a small negative correlation between workplace bullying and compassion satisfaction (pooled correlation coefficient = −0.28, 95% CI = −0.41 to −0.15) was identified. Additionally, our findings suggested a moderate positive correlation between workplace bullying and job burnout (pooled correlation coefficient = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.32 to 0.53) and secondary traumatic stress (pooled correlation coefficient = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.11 to 0.57). Our findings can help nursing managers and policy-makers to draw attention to workplace bullying by implementing effective interventions, so as to reduce the bullying of nurses.

Impact of workplace bullying on job burnout and turnover intention among nursing staff in Greece: Evidence after the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This situation is made even more ominous by estimates that by 2030 there will be significant shortages of health professionals, with nurses holding the highest proportion of shortages [61] . The incidents of bullying experienced by nurses contribute to increasing work stress and, at the same time, to the deterioration of the quality of their working life [62] . Nurses, in their attempt to protect themselves in difficult working conditions, although they remain in their position, opt for quiet quitting, which is a situation where they provide their minimum services, just enough to avoid being fired [63] .…”

Impact of Workplace Bullying on Quiet Quitting in Nurses: The Mediating Effect of Coping Strategies

“…The effects of bullying are multidimensional and affect nurses, patients, and the functioning of the organization. Nurses who are bullied are more likely to experience stress, burnout, job dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, low self-esteem, physical health symptoms, and deterioration in the quality of their work life [9,11,12]. Patients who are hospitalized in departments where nursing staff experience bullying may experience errors and adverse events and may not receive comprehensive nursing care [13][14][15].…”