Nursing Environment: Navigating Through Toxicity in the Workplace

• A nursing environment refers to one’s work environment in which they work. Who they work with, where they work, the shift, leadership, the goals, the energy-all cultivate the environment. 
• A positive environment is where employees can thrive, have their voice heard, be supported, and ultimately impact patient care. 
• A toxic nursing environment can be detrimental to one’s own mental and physical health, as well as trickle down to poorer patient care. Here is a guide to get yourself through working in a toxic nursing environment. 

Nursing is a field that offers various opportunities, multiple shift options, and a wide range of settings that allow nurses to choose the area that best fits their area of expertise and preferences.   

Working as a nurse can be fully rewarding and packed with many advantages; however, working in a toxic nursing environment can prove to be the total opposite. Toxicity can lead to dissatisfaction, decreased desire to work, and stress, all affecting a nurse both mentally and physically.

Toxic Nursing Environment

What defines a toxic work environment?  Of course, the answers can vary but the main ingredients of toxicity include negative and/or bullying behaviors.  

This type of behavior increases stress, inhibits communication, divides employees, all leading to decreased productivity and increased turnover.  

Typically, the employees have overwhelming stress and individuals seem to be rewarded for unethical, nasty, and harmful actions and attitudes.   

Employees working in these types of nursing environments can experience a sense of helplessness and feel their ideas may not be heard.  These feelings can lead to dissatisfaction and even poor work performance.  

This is due to the staff’s thought process of thinking they are unappreciated and not worth more than filling a position.   

Toxic nursing environments can not only affect the performance of the nurses, but can also bleed over into inadequate patient care due to burnout and dissatisfaction. 

Mental and Physical Effects of A Toxic Nursing Environment

Toxicity can affect nurses both mentally and physically.  The lingering effects can be serious and devastating. The mental and physical signs need to be noted and observed in carefully.  

It is important to note that toxic nursing environments typically leave one feeling powerless, vulnerable, and depleted.  If one feels this way long enough, it can have devastating consequences on one’s physical and emotional health as listed above.   

An analogy stated by Porter-O’Grady and Malloch is relevant in describing toxicity in the work environment, “to function properly, each individual cell requires a sufficient supply of nutrients and an efficient system of cleansing or waste removal” (2018, p. 447).    

This statement holds truth for any individual and organization. If one doesn’t take care of themselves physically and if an organization is not evaluating proccesses, the ability to function will be totally impaired.  The end result will be a buildup of toxicity that can be damaging to one’s health, patients, and/or organization.

Making the Nursing Environment Healthier

In order to make a toxic nursing work environment more appealing and healthier, certain areas need to be addressed in an effort to produce changes or improvements.  Some of the ways to overcome toxicity are listed:

It is imperative to understand that toxicity is present in nursing environments and more common than ever. 

Regardless of the rationales behind toxicity, it often causes both physical and emotional stress for the staff and typically a decrease in productivity and increased absentees/sick leave time due to staff desiring a need to be away and a lack of desire to work in this type of environment.   

Many organizations have normalized success and instead of focusing on ways to achieve success. the tendency is to focus on “mistakes” thinking that mistakes can make an organization better.  However, thinking this way is neither productive nor effective as an organization needs to focus on success and ensuring this success and miniminizing the focus on failures.   

The Bottom Line

It is evident that one person cannot make all the necessary changes, but as a team relying on the above mentioned strategies, the results can be converted into a more positive nursing environment.   

Of course, it is a process and takes time, commitment, and consistency from the leaders of the organization along with the staff members, but it should be one of the most important priorities of any organization.  

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