Moral harassment experienced by nurses in their
               workplace

Cross-sectional study performed with 259 nurses working in primary healthcare units and public hospitals. The tool employed in the research was composed of a questionnaire available in the union council's website, and the nurses were emailed the invitation to participate.

Results:

Results showed that the moral harassment phenomenon is more frequently regarded to the manipulation perpetrated by the aggressor toward opposed interests of the victim, followed by the acknowledgement that the harasser seeks to hinder the professional development of the harassed worker.

Conclusion:

The study revealed that the moral harassment experienced by the nurse in the workplace directly impacts his/her labor performance, as well as health and emotional statuses.

Social behavior; Ethics, nursing; Occupational health nursing; Working conditions; Occupational health

Purpose deterioration of work conditions	%
Manipulates people toward taking up positions that go against their interests	47.41
Hinders professional development	40.52
Systematically confronts all decisions	27.59
Restrains rights only to generate damage (vacations, rewards, time schedules)	31.90
Delegates excessive amounts of activities	22.41
Provides confusing and inaccurate information	22.41
Does not convey other useful information toward the performance of tasks	22,41
Requires urgent, yet totally unnecessary tasks	22.41
Forces you to resign	22.41
Obstructs work progress	21.55
Does not take health problems into account	19.83
Provides instructions that are impossible to be executed	18.97
Removes the work that usually belongs to you	18.97
Deprives you from work instruments: telephone, fax, computer, table, among others	17.24
Orders you to perform uninteresting tasks	16.38
Sends registered warning letters	16.38
Induces you to errors	13.79
Assigns tasks that are not compatible with your health status	12.07
Purposefully and systematically assigns tasks that are lower than your competences	11.21
Purposefully and systematically assigns tasks that are higher than your competences	10.34
Imposes unjustifiable time schedules	10.34
Does not provide any service at all	2.59

Verbal, physical and sexual abuse	%
Yells at you	32.76
Attacks you only when nobody else is around	12.57
Meddles in your private life with phone calls, e-mails, letters	5.17
Physically attacks you, although in a mild way, pulls you out and slams the door on your face	4.32
Threatens to physically attack you	2.59
Sexually harasses or attacks you (gestures or proposals)	1.72
Injures your car	0.86

Isolation and refusal to communication	%
Ignores you in the presence of other people	55.17
Interrupts you when you start talking	37.07
Threatens to transfer you to another department, in order to isolate you	13.79
Does not talk to you anymore	12.07
Segregates you from the others	11. 21
Transfers you to another department, in order to isolate you	10.34
Uses written communication with you only	9.48
Prohibits your colleagues to talk to you	8.62

Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Paulo R. Napoleão de Barros, 754, 04024-002 São Paulo - SP/Brasil, Tel./Fax: (55 11) 5576 4430 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: actapaulista@unifesp.br

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[1] Source: Empírical material of the research, João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil. 2011