Document Type

Dissertation

Title

Exploring Incivility among Nursing and Health Science Students: A Descriptive Study

Authors

Diane Louise Smith, Nova Southeastern University

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing Education

Copyright Statement

All rights reserved. This publication is intended for use solely by faculty, students, and staff of Nova Southeastern University. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, now known or later developed, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author or the publisher.

Department

College of Nursing

First Advisor

Lynn E. Bryant

Second Advisor

Lisa B. Soontupe

Third Advisor

Dana S. Mills

Publication Date / Copyright Date

2017

Publisher

Nova Southeastern University

NSUWorks Citation

Diane Louise Smith. 2017. Exploring Incivility among Nursing and Health Science Students: A Descriptive Study. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, College of Nursing. (34)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_con_stuetd/34.

Abstract

Incivility has infiltrated our institutions of higher learning as well as the world of nursing. All too familiar in nursing is the phrase “eating their young,” which aptly describes how nurses treat other nurses, even though they should be nurturing and caring professionals.

The investigator explored nursing and health science students’ perceptions of student and faculty uncivil behaviors within the academic environment, seeking the levels and frequency of the problem. Bandura’s social learning theory presents a sound theoretical framework for this dissertation. The research methodology consisted of a quantitative descriptive approach. The Incivility in Higher Education-Revised (IHE-R) Survey was used to compare nursing and health science student perceptions of the level and frequency of student and faculty incivility. Descriptive statistics and independent t tests were used to compare the different student perceptions. The study results indicated that perceptions of student behavioral levels were between somewhat and moderately uncivil. Student perceptions of faculty behavioral levels were found to be more moderate. Review of the frequency levels reflected students’ frequencies to be never as compared with faculty, which indicated a frequency of sometimes. These results indicated that students perceived incivility to not be problematic within their individual programs, although it found faculty behavior levels were more uncivil even when similar behaviors were demonstrated by students. In general, these results were atypical than other results as incivility is found to be a rising problem. Further study is needed to confirm these results.

Disciplines

Education | Medicine and Health Sciences | Nursing

Keywords

Health and environmental sciences, Education, Bullying, Horizontal violence, Incivility, Lateral violence

Files