New graduate nurses' experiences of bullying and burnout in hospital settings

P>Aim. This paper is a report of a study conducted to test a model linking new graduate nurses' perceptions of structural empowerment to their experiences of workplace bullying and burnout in Canadian hospital work settings using Kanter's work empowerment theory. Background. There are numerous anecdotal reports of bullying of new graduates in healthcare settings, which is linked to serious health effects and negative organizational effects. Methods. We tested the model using data from the first wave of a 2009 longitudinal study of 415 newly graduated nurses (< 3 years of experience) in acute care hospitals across Ontario, Canada. Variables were measured using the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire, Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised and Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey. Results. The final model fit statistics revealed a reasonably adequate fit (chi superset of = 14 center dot 9, d.f. = 37, IFI = 0 center dot 98, CFI = 0 center dot 98, RMSEA = 0 center dot 09). Structural empowerment was statistically significantly and negatively related to workplace bullying exposure (beta = -0 center dot 37), which in turn, was statistically significantly related to all three components of burnout (Emotional exhaustion: beta = 0 center dot 41, Cynicism: beta = 0 center dot 28, Efficacy: beta = -0 center dot 17). Emotional exhaustion had a direct effect on cynicism (beta = 0 center dot 51), which in turn, had a direct effect on efficacy (beta = -0 center dot 34). Conclusion. The results suggest that new graduate nurses' exposure to bullying may be less when their work environments provide access to empowering work structures, and that these conditions promote nurses' health and wellbeing.