Background: Incivility within nursing is professionally unacceptable. Little research exists regarding student nurses' experiences with incivility from healthcare professionals and others within the clinical environment and particularly within a Canadian context.
Aim: To describe the incidence and perceptions of incivility experienced by undergraduate nursing students from healthcare professionals and others within clinical practice.
Method: This descriptive study used an electronic survey and was conducted at an eastern Canadian university. Descriptive statistics were applied.
Results: Of 650 nursing students invited to participate in the study, 260 surveys were fully completed. Of these, 70% of respondents indicated experiencing incivility, mostly in acute care settings. Registered nurses and licensed practical nurses were the major offenders. Discourteous gestures and condescending remarks were the most frequently experienced uncivil acts, resulting in feelings of high anxiety and inadequacy. Participants coped by avoiding communication with the perpetrator. Incivility was rarely reported because of a belief it would be fruitless to do so, lack of awareness of policies and fear of retaliation.
Conclusions: Nursing students experience incivility frequently in clinical practice with serious consequences. Recommendations arising from this study encourage educators and healthcare leaders to collaborate to review, implement and evaluate curricula, policies and processes to address incivility.
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