The effects of bullying on healthcare workers: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Abstract

Objective: This umbrella review will provide a broad overview of the prevalence of vertical and horizontal bullying, the departments and the workers most affected by these attacks.

Methods: We included systematic reviews and meta-analyses examining the effects of bullying on healthcare workers. Data extraction and analysis was performed on all included studies. The research strategy was undertaken in May 2021 and included three electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science): a total of 435 articles were retrieved from the Abstract and, once duplicates and irrelevant articles were removed, a total of 19 useful articles were reviewed. A comprehensive search was done to retrieve articles based on a PRISMA compliant protocol registered in PROSPERO: CRD 42021268082.

Results and discussion: The general prevalence goes from 2 to 100%; for the individual healthcare workers, the highest prevalence is among nurses, 9-100%, followed by doctors 11.50-78.10%. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies, the other healthcare workers such as midwives, radiology technicians, administrative, employees were grouped and their prevalence goes from 3.30 to 100%. The results show that female nurses are significantly more likely to be abused than their male colleagues (women 3.60-100%; men 2.00-64.40%). The workplace in many studies was relevant for bullying: in particular, the most affected departments were emergency departments (2-100%) followed by intensive care units (17-84.80%).

Conclusions: Bullying is extremely present among health workers and must be adequately countered. It will be necessary to carry out further studies to deepen the knowledge on this matter.