The Implication of Bullying on Nursing Practice

Bullying in Rural America
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The Implication of Bullying on Nursing Practice
Bullying is an existential problem in the American social system. It has persisted for decades primarily in schools but has extended to the workplace, social media, transport, and business. Due to its recurrence in the mentioned sectors, considerable efforts have been mounted towards resolving cases that may result in crises. Bullying in school, in particular, has received much attention from the education administrators and healthcare providers. Nurses are, therefore, in the frontline in addressing cases of bullying in the school environment. In rural schools of America, incidents of harassment are as rampant as those in urban schools. As a result, there have been scholarly works that nurses practicing in schools have documented to expound on the issue and give it a clinical perspective.
In "Elementary School Nurses' Perceptions of Student Bullying," published in the Journal of School Nursing, Hendershot et al. (2006) illustrate the school nurses' perception of bullying, their level of preparedness in resolving cases, and the immediate actions they take when students report harassment from their foes. The survey involved 600 school nurses, but only 400 responded to the study. Among the respondents, the majority (99%) were women. White female nurses contributed to 92% of the participants. These nurses were certified by the state and worked legally in these schools. The highest percentage of participant nurses worked in rural and suburban schools, and only a small portion worked in urban institutions. In particular, 45% of those nurses were from suburban schools, 25% were from rural schools, 20 % in urban schools and 7% served in the city schools. It is thus deducible that data obtained from this study was representative of the situation in rural schools.
According to the findings of the study, most school nurses received complaints from elementary school children. 23 % of the respondents indicated that indeed bullying existed in the American school system, while 9% confirmed to have experienced cases of bullying in their working areas. A paired t-test showed significance in both percentages. Some of the strategies that nurses used in dealing with bullying included referring the cases to the school principal, documenting injuries, sending the victims to a counselor, and discussing the matters with the teachers.
In another study titled "An evolutionary concept analysis of school violence: From bullying to death" published in the Journal of Forensic Nursing, Jones, Waites & Clement (2012) characterized the scope of school violence which they say spans from bullying to death. The investigators in this study applied Rodgers and Knalf's model...